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A HISTORY 

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THE ENGLISH PURITANS. 



W. CARLOS MART YN, 



AUTHOE OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN MILTON," "A HIS- 
TORY OF THE HUGUENOTS," AND "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
MARTIN LUTHER." 




PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMEBIC AN TKACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



1>tl 3 it 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
the American Tract Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. 




3/3 ^ '2- 



PREFACE. 



This book makes no pretensions. It often falls 
below what Dryasdust would call "the dignity of 
history," and is satisfied to be considered simply 
an accurate daguerreotype of the men and man- 
ners of a heroic past. 

' The English Puritans have always labored un- 
der the disadvantage of which the lion in the fable 
complained so bitterly. Though they were the con- 
querors, their enemies were the painters. They 
have come down to us in tho distorted lineaments 
of hostile pencils. If one may borrow the clever 
illustration of Grainger, the performances of most 
of their historians remind us of the paintings of 
Brueghel, who had so accustomed himself to paint 
witches and imps, that if he tried to paint a man, 
he was sure to make him like a devil. 

But it has been well said, that in history the law 
of optics is reversed : 

"Our souls much, further than our eyes can see." 

Society now perceives that the Puritans were ear- 
nest, honest, devout men, anxious mainly to inau- 
gurate the regime of vital godliness and of civil lib- 
ert}' — sub libertate quietem. Their great effort was 



4 



PREFACE. 



to purify society. Puritanism was a protest against 
formalism ; it was an insurrection of the soul against 
the body. And their pithy theology, their stern 
devotion to duty, their unfaltering heroism, have 
combined to crown them as the teachers of their 
own time and as the apostles of the Christian fu- 
ture. 

Posterity is concerned to know precisely how 
such men lived and acted, " at what a forge and 
what a heat was shaped the anchor of their hope." 
A volume which shall tell this story, and tell it 
fairly, which shall 

"Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice," 

is certain to receive a welcome not only from the 
descendants of the Puritans, but from good men 
who do not see eye to eye with those uncompro- 
mising heroes. 

The materials for such a work are vastly more 
copious than the mere casual observer would imag- 
ine ; they not only fill the highways of English his- 
tory, they choke the bypaths. From the reign of 
Elizabeth up to the Act of Toleration under William 
of Orange, there is hardly a private memoir or a 
diary which does not have something to say about 
the Puritans. English chroniclers and foreign sa- 
vants alike noted their impressions of them. Puri- 
tanism was not merely of local interest ; it expanded 
into European importance, and forced men, whether 
they would or not, to investigate and to judge it. 

The distinctive name Puritan was not applied 



PEEFAOE. 



5 



until the reign of Elizabeth, but the spirit existed 
long before the name was born ; so also did the 
great struggle which gave rise to it. It is impossi- 
ble to understand Puritanism unless we comprehend 
what preceded it. Therefore this sketch antedates 
the nominal rise of the Puritans under the maiden 
queen. Going back to the introduction of Christian- 
ity into Britain, it has compressed into two or three 
score pages the ecclesiastical history of twice seven 
hundred years before the Reformation, and ends the 
rehearsal at the year 1688, the epoch of definitive 
toleration. This is a broad field to traverse, but an 
honest effort has been made to glean the harvest ; 
and at the same time that saying of the Grecians 
has been borne in mind, that " the best books are 
those whose covers are least far apart." 

For the authority of this volume, the marginal 
notes must speak, and an appeal is made to them. 

With the Puritans every enterprise commenced 
with God ; it is eminently proper that the benedic- 
tion of heaven should be invoked upon the record 
of their labors. To His favor this book, a feeble 
but sincere tribute to the spiritual heroes "who 
kept the faith so pure of old," is reverently com- 
mended. 

New Yoke, January, 1867. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The epoch of Christian democracy — Characteristics of the nine- 
teenth century — The distinctive lesson of the Reformation — 
Puritanism the inevitable outgrowth of the pacification of the 
sixteenth century — The vilifiers of the Puritans — Puritanism 
the creator of moral America — Nature of history — Preparatory 
eras — Birth of English Christianity — The merchant-preach- 
ers — The aborigines of Britain — The Boman civility — Druid- 
ism — Absence of authentic records of the vicissitudes of this 
historic period — The Saxon invasion — Introduction of the 
Tartaric idolatry of the North — Beintroduction of Christian- 
ity — Gregory the Great in the Boman market-place — The Saxon 
slave-gangs — The clerical punster — Ecclesiastical commission 
under Augustine — Its success — Character of papal Christian- 
ity — Causes of the corruption of the Boman hierarchy — Church 
history of the heptarchy — Beign of Alfred — England esteemed 
the try sting-place of the dead — Wretched condition of the 
island — Alfred's testimony — The hero-king founds schools — 
Establishment of Oxford university — Continental scholars in- 
vited into England — Learning the avant courrier of reform 25 

CHAPTER II. 

State of England after the death of Alfred — St. Dunstan — His 
career — The struggle which Dunstan inaugurates marks one 
age and moulds the succeeding — The Norman conquest — Influ- 
ence of the Conqueror — Lanfranc's primacy — His innovations — 
The scheme of Hildebrand — How it was momentarily thwarted 
in England — Borne bides her time, and intrigues — Early British 
literature — Burke's complaint — Progress of the Boman usurpa- 
tions — The papacy, speaking through the Hps of Becket, claims 
the immunity of ecclesiastics from the secular jurisdiction — 
Disastrous close of the consequent controversy — King John 
alienates the sovereignty of England, and pays tribute to the 
pope — A phase of resistance to the papal arrogance — Grostete, 
Bradwardine, Edward III., Wickliffe— Wickliffc the progenitor 



8 



CONTENTS. 



of the Puritans — His birth — Broad scholarship — He "searches 
the Scriptures" — He becomes convinced of the corruption of 
Rome, and commences to proclaim the tenets of the primitive 
faith — Four phases of "Wickliffe's public life — Wickliffe as a 
politician — Insolent claims of pope Urban V. — Resistance of 
Edward III. — Parliament convened — The statutes of Provisors 
and Praemunire — Puller's witticism — Wickliffe's share in the 
controversy — His ministry — The Oxford professor and the 
Lutterworth pastor — "Wickliffe translates the Bible into Eng- 
lish — Consequent sensation — A papist's protest — Wickliffe as a 
theologian — He proclaims the essential doctrines of Protestant- 
ism — Effect of his brave preaching — Persecution — The Re- 
former's death — Hampden and Milton join hands with Wick- 
liffe and hail him as their father 38 



CHAPTER III. 

Four ascending steps of English Protestantism — Effect of Wick- 
liffe's doctrines — The agitation spreads through Europe — The 
papacy lets slip her dogs, and hounds down " heresy" — Politi- 
cal changes — A cunning priest — "The pelting of the pitiless 
storm" — Violation of Wickliffe's sepulchre — The wars of the 
"Roses" — The first of the Tudors— "Retribution has a foot of 
velvet, but a hand of steel" — Henry VIII. — A leaf from Boling- 
broke — The two tides — Seed-time of the Reformation — English 
apostles — Old Hugh Latimer — "The most diligentest bishop 
in England" — The distinctive principle of the English Re- 
formers — Animus of the government — Cardinal Wolsey — Status 
of the king — The ill-omened marriage — Anne Boleyn — The 
divorce struggle — The mission to Rome — Wolsey's urgency — 
Papal chicanery — The king loses patience— -The result — Down- 
fall of Wolsey - - - 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

Fuller's summary — Progress of the Reformation — Marriage of 
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn — Action of parliament — Popery 
barred out of England by statute — The convocation — An epi- 
sode which illustrates the benefit of an acquaintance with musty 
statutes — How the convocation was reduced to obedience — Act 
of Supremacy — Visitation of the monasteries — The "Bible 
era " of the Information — Activity of the court of Rome — The 
papal bull — Iveflcctions on the origin of the English Reforma- 
tion — The rationale of Romanism — Subtlety and flexibility — 
The grace of God the only adequate weapon of assault 62 



CONTENTS. 



9 



CHAPTER V. 

Character of the age of Henry VIII. — The religious Babel — First 
reformed convocation — It confirms Henry's divorce from Anne 
Boleyn — Some facts — The elaboration of a creed — Latimer's 
text — The debate — The " twilight religion " — "What it settled, 
and what it did not settle — Unpopularity of the new ritual — 
Severity of the government — Emeutes broaden into rebellion — 
Action of a committee — The " Six Articles" — The surrender to 
Rome — The royal "power and profit" reformer- — Cranmer and 
Cromwell protest — Lambert's auto da f£ — The victims of 
"home-bred popery "—England exchanges popes — Fall of Lord 
Cromwell — Death of Henry VIII. — The verdict of history- - 72 

CHAPTER VI. 

"The king is dead ; long live the king!" — Edward VI. — The mar- 
vellous character of the baby king — Constitution of the new 
government — Cranmer becomes the leader of the Reforma- 
tion — Repeal of the "Six Articles" — The "open sesame" of 
the new regime — Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer in England — 
The ecclesiastical system of Henry VIII. is remodelled — Pro- 
gramme of procedure — The royal visitation — Cranmer's " hom- 
ilies " — Conformity enforced — Imprisonment of Gardiner and 
Bonner — Unsettled condition of religious faith in England — ■ 
The expediency and justice of toleration — Plan to secure relig- 
ious unity — Servility of the .old English Parliaments — The 
"iconoclastic Parliament" — Its glorious achievements — Book 
of Common Prayer of the Church of England — -The Liturgy — 
Enforcement of the Service-book by harsh legislation — Ani- 
madversions — The victims— Joan of Kent — Cranmer's course — 
Burnet censures him — The princess Mary — Popular tumults — ■ 
Birth of Non-conformity - — 81 

CHAPTER VII. 

The bond between church and state — Universal belief in the right 
of government to dictate in religious matters — Jewish and 
Roman precedents— The new regime retains many of the eccle- 
siastical equipments of the old — It parts with the essence of 
popery — Beneficent results of the use of the new Service-book — 
The attempt to enforce absolute uniformity the fatal error of the 
church-and-state reformers — The "vestment controversy" — 
Bishop Hooper — His antecedents — Apx^ointed bishop of Glou- 
cester — Refuses to accept that see — Reasons for his rejection 

1* 



10 



CONTENTS. 



of the dignity — Action of the king and council — Bishop Kid- 
ley — Reasons for the retention of the old vestments — The plan 
in Ridley's argument — The debate contains the gems of Puri- 
tanism — Cranmer's views — Bucer and Martyr appealed to — 
Their decision — Advice of the Genevan doctors — Hooper's un- 
willingness to conform provokes his persecution — His impris- 
onment — The king's decree — Eventual settlement of the con- 
troversy by a compromise — In after years Cranmer and Ridley 
agree with Hooper's estimate of the vestments — The importance 
assigned to preaching one of the marked features of Edward's 
reign — The six most zealous and ready preachers of the time — 
The first Anglo-Saxon Tract Society — Approach of black days — 
Death of Edward VI. — England given over to demoniacs- - 90 

CHAPTEE YIII. 

Political situation on the death of Edward — The will of Henry 
VIII. — The young king's ruse — An unlawful testament — Coro- 
nation of Lady Jane Grey — Why the conspiracy was defeated — 
Mary's accession — Mary's bigotry has four phases — How the 
queen cozened the Suffolk men — Release of the Romanist bish- 
ops from the Tower — The proclamation — The inhibition — -The 
Protestant pulpits shackled — Reformers bastilled— The foreign 
Protestants resident in England driven out — Self-exile of the 
English reformers— The muddle — Coronation of the queen — 
Convention of Parliament — The house packed by bribery and 
menace— Abolition of the reformatory statutes — Romanism once 
more legalized in England — The convocation — Bonner loses 
temper — "You have the word, but we have the sword" — Eng- 
land and Rome reconciled — The cardinal's benediction — Resur- 
rection of the statutes for the execution of heretics by fire — The 
dance of death begins— Gardiner and Bonner the twin jackals 
of the hunt— The English court of Inquisition— Cranmer, Rid- 
ley, and Latimer baited and abused at Oxford— The logical 
dilemma— -Autos da fe— John Rogers' martyrdom— Old Smith- 
fi, Id—The rendezvous of the fire goblins— Scenes at the stake— 
The heroes of chivalry, and the heroes of the faith— Martyrdom 
of Hooper at Gloucester— Bradford ascends to heaven in a 
chariot of fire— The fires of Smithfield broaden over England — 
Ridley and Latimer martyred at one stake in Oxford— Gardi- 
ner death-smitten— Execution of Archbishop Cranmer — "Oh 
that unworthy hand, that unworthy hand "—Intolerance broods 
over England — Rome must persecute to be consistent — Perse- 
cution does not choke heresy— The throttled truth still finds 
proselytes - - 103 



CONTENTS.. 



11 



CHAPTER IX. 

The self-banished reformers — The Frankfort congregation — Their 
cordial reception — The English Protestants share the chapel 
of the French Huguenots — Conditions of the grant — The new 
church government — The packet of letters — Response of the 
neighboring English refugees — The Frankfortites grieved but 
firm — They appoint John Knox their pastor — The exiled ad- 
herents of the Established church refuse to fellowship the non- 
conforming church — The appeal to Calvin — Verdict of the 
Genevan doctor — The debate — The decision — Dr. Cox and his 
colleagues arrive in Frankfort — He determines to compel con- 
formity to the English ritual — Consequent troubles — Interven- 
tion of the Frankfort magistrates — The Coxians beaten — Cox 
denounces Knox to the city senate as a traitor to the emperor — 
Knox requested to leave the town — Arbitrary course of the 
Coxians — Vain protest of the non-conformists — Cox writes 
Calvin — The reply — The old congregation quit Frankfort for 
Basle and Geneva — Knox forms a new church in Geneva — 
After history of the Frankfort exiles — These troubles the infant 
cry of Puritanism — The epithet "schismatics" — Ecclesiastical 
opinions of the fathers of the English Eeformation — The pros 
and cons — The two parties in the English church — How the 
exiles "made shift to subsist through these hard times " — Death 
of Mary — The release from banishment 124 

CHAPTER X. 

England awakes from her nightmare — Events which preceded the 
coronation of Elizabeth — The unhappy situation on her acces- 
sion — Elizabeth dissembles, and preserved for a time the status 
quo — Parliament assembles at Westminster — Its bias towards 
reform — Eepeal of the papal legislation of Mary's reign — The 
new act of supremacy — The "weak and dwindled" convoca- 
tion — The disputation — The papists refuse to debate — "They 
only love to have syllogisms in their mouths, when they have 
swords in their hands" — The Eomanists ordered to take the 
oath of supremacy — The larger portion do so — Those who are 
contumacious imprisoned — Preparations made to enforce con- 
formity — Large numbers of the English Protestants prefer the 
Genevan and Lutheran discipline — The Non-conformists now 
styled Puritans — Eeason of the nickname — The Puritans and 
the Conformists agree in doctrine but quarrel over discipline — 
Animus of the queen — Eevision of the Liturgy — Parliament 
places the law of uniformity upon the statute-book — The court 



12 



CONTENTS. 



of High Commission — Its abnormal character — The govern 
ment enforce uniformity in non-essentials by penal legislation — 
The rock on which the peace of the church is split — Eeflections — 
The vacant sees filled by Protestants — Parker consecrated 
archbishop of Canterbury — The Reformation settled — Resume 
of the points of agreement and disagreement between the Con- 
formists and the Puritans in the church of England — Neither 
party believes in toleration — The tendency of Puritanism — Its 
spirituality - 137 

CHAPTER XL 

Two principles — Distinction between the civil and the ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions — Elizabeth "ransacks consciences" — The bishops 
and the royal council wink at the evasion of the Uniformity 
act — The queen's rage thereat— End of the policy of delay — 
Zeal of Archbishop Parker — A record of heroism — London the 
Gibraltar of Puritanism — The citation — "In the gap" — Sha- 
drach, Meshach, and Abednego — The killed consciences — The 
bureau of spies — The license system — The parish pulpits closed 
to Non-conformists — The ancient privilege of Cambridge — The 
Puritans, shackled in the pulpit, turn to the press — The war of 
pamphlets — A Star-chamber decree muzzles the press— Faith 
in God a distinctive principle of Puritanism— The Separatists — 
The majority of the Puritans still adhere to the church of Eng- 
land—The Puritans, whether Separatists or church-of-England 
men, relentlessly harried by the government — Mary of Scots in 
England — Knox runs the Scottish Keformation in the Genevan 
mould — The Scotch Presbyterians and the English Puritans 
clasp hands — Elizabeth's disgust — Detention of Mary of Scots in 
a gilded imprisonment — The portentous European sky — Kome's 
reactive assault upon the Protestant idea — France — The Neth- 
erlands — England swarms with popish emissaries — Jesuit 
masqueraders — Rome's "missionary"' colleges — The quelled 
irneutes — The bruium f ulmen — The Chinese gong of excommuni- 
cation frightens no one — Continued persecution of the Puri- 
tans — Elizabeth's Don Quixotism - — 152 

CHAPTER XII. 

English policy squints towards the fagot and the stake — Eliza- 
beth's ruse — The Anabaptists — Two martyrs — Britain cries 
veto — The spinster queen changes her policy — Legislation 
against Kome — Elizabeth and the French ambassador— Why 
the queen was nearer akin than cousin to the pope — John Fox, 



CONTENTS. 13 

the martyrologist — New phase of the controversy between 
Puritanism and the church — Thomas Cartwright — He inveighs 
against the Establishment — Hi& rationale — Sensation — Cart- 
wright expelled from the University and driven beyond the 
sea — A new wonder — A Romanist marriage for the queen on 
the tapis — Sir Philip Sidney remonstrates — Stubbs' pamphlet — 
Its punishment — "There lies the hand of a true English- 
man" — The "Admonition to Parliament" — Cartwright returns 
from the continent, and renews the controversy with Whitgift 
on "the fittest form of church government" — The Olympian 
game of words — Arguments pro and con — Imprisonment of 
the authors of the "Admonition" — Popular feeling against the 
bishops —^A glance at Parliament — Strickland's motion — Its 
results — Wentworth's brave speech — Elizabeth "dashes" a 
reform bill — The Puritans and the Parliament — The queen's 
rage — Cartwright' s incarceration — Cartwright not a Separa- 
tist — Elizabeth's inconsistency — News of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew reaches England 165 

CHAPTEE XIII. 

Death of Parker, archbishop of Canterbury— His character — Ed- 
mund Grindal succeeds him in the primacy — The "Prophesy- 
ings" — The queen offended — Her concio ad cle'rum — Grindal's 
letter — The primate sequestered — Consequent scandal — Grin- 
dal, broken and blind, dies in 1582— His character — Whitgift 
succeeds him in the see of Canterbury — He resolves "to open 
the eyes of Non-conformists by power" — Vital piety lies tor- 
pid—The supply of preachers fails — Cause and effect — Eliza 
beth considers ' ' all pious people as embraced under the nick- 
name 'Puritan'" — Strype on the witness stand — Philosophy of 
great moral and political movements — The "Familists" — The 
' ' Brownists " — Renewed persecutions-r-Smithfield again — The 
use of enthusiasts— The policy of Rome 178 

CHAPTEE XIY. 

England at large does not sympathize with the arbitrary action 
of the government — The nurseries of the "great rebellion" — 
Patience of the Puritans — Romanist plots — The Spanish Ar- 
mada — Profanation of the Lord's day — Parliament attempts to 
interfere, but is snubbed by the queen — Renewal two years later 
of a Sabbatarian controversy — Whitgift and the Lord Chief-jus- 
tice Popham oppose the "Sabbath doctrine" — The controversy 
changes base— Richard Hooker and Walter Travers — "Schism 
within the Temple " — A page from Fuller — Some recent charges 



u 



CONTENTS. 



against the course of the Puritans in Elizabeth's reign — Rebut- 
ting evidence — Danger of a union between church and state — 
Comparative calm in the latter years of the great queen's rule — 
Reasons — Death of Elizabeth Tudor 193 

CHAPTER XV. 

The English crown passes from the house of Tudor to the Stu- 
arts — Antecedents of James I. — Though bred a Presbyterian, 
he gives the bishops the right hand of fellowship — Kingcraft — 
James' despicable character — A swearer, a dissembler, a drunk- 
ard, a coward, and a liar — The two petitions — James in Lon- 
don — The metropolis plague-smitten — The king's proclamation 
for a conference on religious matters at Hampton Court — The 
gathering — The leaders of the church party — The Puritan rep- 
resentatives — Eirst day of the conference — Second day — Third 
day — The king's conduct through the disputation — General 
dissatisfaction with the "mock conference" — James' second 
proclamation enforcing conformity — Death of Cartwright — 
Death of Whitgift 210 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Bancroft succeeds Whitgift in the see of Canterbury — He is "most 
stiff and stem to press conformity " — The differences between 
the two wings of the church become implacable — James' par- 
liamentary offer "to meet the papists in the mid- way" — The 
Puritans rated as ' ' insufferable in any well-governed common- 
wealth" — The Romanists are styled the king's "faithful sub- 
jects" — The Puritans "worthy of fire for their opinions"- — The 
convocation — All Independent churches anathematized, and 
abandoned to the wrath of God — The lines drawn — The king 
and clergy on one side, the Puritans and Parliament on the 
other — James wishes for a hermitage — Unique petition of the 
"Familists" — The gunpowder plot — The king's "faithful sub- 
jects" conspire to blow him into atoms — "Treason without a 
Jesuit, is like a dry wall without either lime or mortar" — The 
plotters at work — The vault beneath the Parliament-house — 
Interruptions — All is ready — The letter — The search — The dis- 
covery — The execution — "Heaven defeats hell of its desired 
success" - - --- 221 

CHAPTER XVII. 

A severe penal code enacted against the Romanists— Severity soon 
relaxed — Anecdote — Romanists' cells refilled with Puritans — 
Controversy among the Non-conformists about the policy and 



CONTENTS. 



15 



lawfulness of separation — Treatment of the Separatists — The 
yeomen of Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Lincoln — The gospel 
of these Puritans — They propose to emigrate — The departure 
for Holland — Life in the Netherlands — Homesickness — Sor- 
rows — The determination — Petition the king for permission to 
colonize America — The "promise of neglect" — Keply of the 
exiles — All ready — Robinson's farewell — The embarkation at 
Delft- Haven — Touching story of the exile voyage — Arrival of 
the Pilgrims at Plymouth Kock — Reflections— The king's plea 
for the prerogative— Encouragement of Sunday sports— James 
patronizes Arminianism — The Arminian divines become the 
stoutest champions of the prerogative — Distinction between 
church and state Puritans — Fusion of the Puritans and the 
Constitutionalists — Home and foreign affairs — Resume of the 
later years of James First's reign — Death of the king — The old 
and the new eras - 231 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The situation on the accession of Charles I. — Philosophy of the 
maturing revolution — Character of the new king — His unfor- 
tunate education — His aversion to Puritanism- — His attach- 
ment to absolutism — His "habit of duplicity" — The journey 
to Spain — The French marriage — Charles makes a model of 
the Paris and Madrid monarchies — He fails to comprehend his 
epoch — His first Parliament — The "senate of kings"- — Eadical 
disagreement between the king and Commons — Dissolution of 
the Parliament — The "forced" loan — Failure of an expedition 
against Cadiz — Parliament reassembled — The royal trick — • 
Firmness of the Commons — Imprisonment of several members 
of the lower House — The king's threat — Excitement of the 
Commons — The House proclaims its ultimatum — The sine qua 
' non of the Lords — The king beaten — Parliament falls upon its 
grievances — Encroachments of Rome — House committee on 
religion snubbed by the king — The debate transferred to the 
street — The proclamation — Puritans attempt to write in de- 
fence of the Thirty-nine Articles — Gagged by the exceptional 
courts— Petition of the booksellers — Charles prorogues the two 
Houses — His new role - - 215 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The king decrees another forced loan — High-handed and unlaw- 
ful efforts to enforce it — Gentlemen of birth and character 
imprisoned — The poorer districts dragoonaded — The demand 



16 



CONTENTS. 



on London — First attempt to collect "ship-money" — Reply 
of the citizens — Eesponse of the court — Passive obedience 
preached — Archbishop Abbot disgraced — His puritanical repu- 
tation — The Puritans make the national privileges a part of 
their religion — The court reaps a lean crop of money — Charles 
passes from one usurpation to another — The question of bail- 
ment stirred — Conduct of the judges — The king compounds 
with the Romanists — A fatal policy — The Puritan camp be- 
comes the Protestant rendezvous — "War with Prance — Caused 
by the licentious intrigues of the duke of Buckingham — A 
protest which history scouts — Total failure of Buckingham's 
expedition to relieve Bochelle — Consequent excitement in 
England — Buckingham's withering reception — The king per- 
plexed — Sir Robert Colton's advice — Parliament once more 
assembled — The king's opening speech — He threatens to resort 
again to the "new counsels" — Inflexibility of the Commons — 
They resolve to "proclaim their liberties" — High character of 
the members of the House — Coke — "Wentwortk — Hollis — 
Pym — The Commons refuse to grant Charles a subsidy until 
he signs a bill of rights — Consequent fierce struggle — Triumph 
of the House — The preachers of passive obedience reprimand- 
ed — Manwaring cited before the bar of the House of Lords — 
Two new remonstrances — The king loses patience and pro- 
rogues Parliament — Assassination of the duke of Bucking- 
ham — Charles thrown back into tyranny — He bestows his 
favor upon the adversaries of Parliament — The remodelled 
cabinet — Parliament once»more in session — The budget of 
grievances — Appointment of a committee on religion — Crom- 
well stutters and stamps his maiden speech — The tonnage 
and poundage question — Sir John Elliot's motion — Uproar in 
the House of Commons — The king orders hig guard to disperse 
the members — Dissolution of the Parliament — Arrest and in- 
carceration of the obnoxious members — A martyr to libertj^ — 
High carnival at Hampton Court and Whitehall — "The peo- 
ple's guns are spiked" — Cromwell does not take the courtier 
view - 255 

CHAPTER XX. 
The two leaders of English absolutism — Strafford — Laud — The 
statesman and the priest — Resume of the gradual change in 
the rationale of the English church — Position and claims of 
the bishops on the accession of Charles I. — Laud organizes a 
new crusade for uniformity — Details — Laud's innovations — 
Their character and object — Partiality shown to Romanists — 
Treatment of the Puritans— Anticipations of the recognition 



CONTENTS. 



17 



of the papal supremacy — Land and the daughter of the duke 
of Devonshire — Kenewed Puritan emigration — Its extent — The 
Nileometer of persecution — Laud's design on Scotland — The 
bishop and the king — The Scottish tour — The coronation at 
Edinburgh — Laud manages the ceremony — Charles and the 
Scots' parliament — Eeturn of the king to London — Laud's 
success — Is advanced to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury — 
His vast patronage — The kingdom overhauled — Features of his 
tyranny — G-eneral discontent — Puritanical opinion of Laud — ■ 
A leaf from Hume — The Titans begin to heave beneath the 
mountain - 269 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Progress of usurpation — John Hampden and his twenty shillings 
tax — The trial — Its effect — Characteristics of the tyranny of 
Charles I. — "Whom the gods would destroy they first make 
mad" — The swarm of pamphlets — Prynne, Barton, Bostwick — 
Their arraignment — Trial, in Anglo-Saxon dialect — Laud's 
inquisition — Scenes at the pillory — The folly of persecution — 
Distinguishing mark of a Puritan — The king's declaration 
against the observation of the Sabbath — A contrast — Laud's 
presumption — Emigration once more — Herbert's couplet — 
Alarm of the court — The king vetoes further emigration — 
Hazlerig, Pym, Hampden, and Cromwell detained in England 
by this order — Comments — Peace with foreign nations — Dis- 
graceful position of England — Charles employs the leisure 
purchased by dishonor in attempting to coerce Scotland into 
conformity with the English ritual — Insidious progress — The 
Scottish service-book — Unanimity of the Scots in opposing 
it — Reasons — The king's command — Ceremony of its introduc- 
tion — The riot— The old woman in the cathedral — Persistence 
of the king — Scotland arms from the Orkneys to the Tweed — 
Resistance organizes itself — The Covenant — Popular enthusi- 
asm — Sympathy between the English Puritans and the Scotch 
Covenanters — Opinion of the king's adherents adverse to these 
high, rough measures— Madness of the court — Its poverty- 
stricken and defenceless condition — Charles summons his no- 
bility to a rendezvous at York — The situation — The king driven 
to the dernier ressort of a Parliament- - - 280 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Temper of the new Parliament— Anxiety of the court — Laud's 
effort to neutralize the committees —Caution of the Commons — 
Skirmishing — Debate on grievances — Feeling in regard to the 
Scottish war— The king's proposition— Vane's comment— Dis- 



18 



CONTENTS. 



solution of the Parliament — Astonishment of the country — 
Oliver St. John and Clarendon — Indignation of the middle 
classes — The House of Commons becomes the citadel of lib- 
erty — Unpopularity of the prelates — Multitudes of "seditious 
books" — Charles and the Komanists — Rapid spread of popish 
doctrines — Walter Montagu and Toby Matthews — The pope's 
estimate of the status of the English bishops — Disquietude of the 
Protestants — Real position of Laud — Bishop Hall's treatise on 
the jus divinum of episcopacy — Laud new-models it— The "new 
counsels" again — Comedy of the Scotch war — The two armies 
fraternize — Strafford's despair — Aversion to the war in Eng- 
land — Eiots in London — Sack of Laud's palace — The et ccetera 
oath — Charles determines to convene a grand council of the 
peers — Petitions for another Parliament — The king succumbs — 
The Long Parliament — It commences soberly — Numb fear of the 
court — The chill at Whitehall — Decisive action of the Com- 
mons — Abolition of the courts of exception — Puritan prisons 
opened — Wentworth's motto of "thorough" adopted — Strafford 
and Laud impeached and thrown into the Tower— Strafford's 
speedy trial and execution — Laud left for several years in close 
imprisonment — King signs an act which binds him not to 
dissolve the Parliament without their consent — Paralysis of 
the court — Jubilee of the non-conforming sects — - 297 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The parliamentary partisans of the government recover from their 
first surprise — Object of the Puritan leaders — Salus populi 
supremo- lex — Soundheads and Cavaliers — Eoot-and-branch peti- 
tion — Other petitions for and against the establishment — The 
Commons are divided in sentiment — Difference between the 
upper and lower Houses — Character of the Lords — Conserva- 
tism and radicalism — The Irish insurrection — A horrible sus- 
picion — The flood-tide of passion — The English saturnalia— 
Protestation of the bishops — Consequent impeachment and 
sequestration — The king's treachery — Eoul play — Attempted 
arrest of the Puritan leaders of the Commons — Consternation — 
Wild uproar — Charles quits London and repairs to York — 
Ineffectual negotiations — Commencement of the civil war — 
How the quarrel looks to republican eyes — Character of the 
two .sides —The Cavaliers — The Puritans 310 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The early months of 1(512 — The king's preparations — Activity of 
the Parliament — The Commons feel the importance of effecting 
an alliance with Scotland— Abolition of episcopacy— Kemarks — 



CONTENTS. 



19 



An anecdote — Progress of the war — Death of Lord Brooke — 
Of Falkland — Of Hampden — The Parliament worsted — The 
commission to Scotland — The Solemn League and Covenant — 
The English commissioners desire a civil league — The Scots 
insist on a religious covenant — The compromise — The Westmin- 
ster Assembly of divines — The convocation in Henry VHIth's 
chapel — Character of the Assembly — The three parties — The 
Presbyterians — The Erastians — The Independents — The Inde- 
pendents and Baptists the only avowed friends of toleration at 
that time — Return of the commissioners frorn Scotland — Dis- 
cussion in the Assembly on the Covenant — Its adoption — 
Letters to foreign Protestants — Counter-appeal of the king — 
Dissolution of the establishment — Action of the divines at 
Westminster — Confession of Faith — Longer and Shorter Cate- 
chisms — The debate on toleration — The Presbyterians usurp 
the discarded prerogatives of the prelates — Three kinds of 
popes — Absurdity of the Presbyterian position— They are fierce 
to press conformity — Protest of the Independent leaders — 
Vane — Cromwell — Milton — "New presbyter is but old priest 
writ iabge" — The five champions of toleration in the Assem- 
bly — Their "good fight" for free conscience — They are voted 
down — The appeal to the Commons — The result — Chagrin of 
the party of intolerance 322 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

Live growths rive dead matter — Increasing earnestness of the 
struggle — Dilettanteism gives place to honest energy — Crom- 
well — His rapid rise— His philosophy of the contest — Crom- 
well's regiment — He new-models the army — Brilliant results — * 
Character of the Parliamentary troops — Their sobriety — Their 
earnestness — Then prayerfulness — Baxter's account — A glance 
at Parliament — Constant effort of the rigid Presbyterians to set- 
tle their discipline into the national religion — Ecclesiastical stat- 
utes — Repeal of the anti-sabbatarian laws of the past — Sunday 
under the Long Parliament — Abolition of the offices and titles 
of bishops — Effect — Bishops Usher, Morton, and Hall — Parlia- 
ment votes the sequestrated bishops a pension — Suffering of 
the clergy on both sides through the civil war — The deprived 
clergymen — A fifth part of the revenue of their old livings 
awarded them — Close of the war — Charles surrenders his per- 
son to the Scots — His intrigues — The king and the Presby- 
terian preachers — An odd incident — The Scots give the king 
up to the Parliament — The Presbyterian majority in the Par- 
liament propose to nationalize their creed — Cromwell forbids 



20 



CONTENTS. 



it — The army strongly wedded to the Independent tenets — ■ 
The equal toleration of all evangelical sects demanded — The 
military parliament — Cromwell appointed generalissimo — The 
army snbdues the Parliament - 336 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Perfidy of the king— Cromwell endeavors to negotiate with the 
monarch — The discovery — The flight — Charles seeks an asy- 
lum and finds a prison— Scotland rises for the king — March 
of the army — Treachery of the Parliament — The negotiators at 
the Isle of Wight — Triumphant return of the army— The House 
" purged" — The king seized — The "rump" Parliament votes 
the impeachment of the king — The trial — The execution — 
Grief of the Cavaliers — The "painted sorrow" of the Presby- 
terians — Mood of the Cromwellians — The government new- 
modelled — The council of state — Vane becomes the leader of 
the House — Milton appointed secretary of state — Discontent 
of the Romanists and the Presbyterians — Ireland and Scotland 
transfer their allegiance to Charles II. — Energy of the Puritan 
government — Cromwell subjugates Ireland- — He next invades 
and subdues Scotland — The pacification — 347 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Toleration under the Commonwealth — Condition and status of the 
sectaries — Independents — Baptists — Quakers — George Fox — 
Presbyterians — Their intolerant spirit — Act for the propagation 
of the gospel in Wales — The public order — How Sunday was 
kept — Freedom of the press — Milton the literary champion of 
the Commonwealth — European position of England — Domes- 
tic unpopularity of the new government — Keasons — Cromwell 
and the council of state — The pretext — The coup d'etat — Feel- 
ing of parties — "Barebones"' Parliament — Cromwell's "usur- 
pation" — Remarks — "This house to be let, unfurnished" 356 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Cromwell on the royal platform of a hundred kings — Domestic 
affairs — State of parties — Friends and foes — The Protector's 
wisdom — Unique character of theecclcsiastical establishment — 
Broad toleration — Ministerial requisites — The triers — Crom- 
well's personal liberality — His conduct towards the Episcopa- 
lians — Towards the Papists — His unparalleled magnanimity— 
A sneer — Attention paid to literature — Oxford revolutionized — 
"Drab-colored" Puritanism — The strange chancellor — Crom- 



CONTENTS. 



21 



well's literary qualifications — His taste in the fine arts — His pat- 
ronage of letters — Hume's encomium — Baxter's sketch — The 
Protector's foreign administration — Milton Latin secretary — 
Sir Matthew Hale Chief-justice — Incorporation of Ireland and 
Scotland — Cromwell's European fame — The flunkey crowned 
heads — Cromwell's attitude towards the Bomanist powers — 
His intervention for the Vaudois — Secret of his unprecedented 
continental influence — The English fleet in the Mediterranean — 
The Protectorate held in universal awe — An Italian diplomat's 
impressions of England — Character of the Puritans under the 
Protectorate — Death and character of bishop Hall — Parliament 
proffers the crown to Cromwell — The refusal — Eclat of the last 
years of the Protectorate — Cromwell and the Huguenots — 
Death of the Protector— His last words a prayer 367 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Situation on the death of Cromwell — A treacherous calm — Bichard 
Cromwell proclaimed Protector — His character — Intrigues — 
Besignation of the new Protector — Monk — Anarchy — Monk in 
London — The pleaders — Monk recalls the "rump" Parlia- 
ment — Its vicissitudes — The army — Feeling of the masses — The 
election — The coalition — Charles II. invited to take the crown — • 
The betrayal — Bemarks — The king at Dover — Arrives in Lon- 
don — Bejoicings — Casting the horoscope- - 393 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Beaction against the Puritans — Causes — Looseness and profanity 
of the Bestoration — Puritanism out of date — Independents and 
Baptists petition for toleration — High hopes of the Presby- 
terians — Charles coquets with them — The royal chaplains — 
Character of Charles II. — The Presbyterians strive to secure a 
comprehension — The programme — The audience — Baxter and 
the royal profligate— The consultation at Zion college — Disap- 
pointment — Feeling of the Cavaliers — Bevival of the Laudean 
severities against Non-conformists — The old sequestered clergy 
at court — The Presbyterians wait' upon the king — The declara- 
tion — "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick" — The politi- 
cians — Clarendon — Act of oblivion — Exceptions — The waifs — 
The sacrilege — Violation of the grave — Milton's pamphlets and 
the hangman — Execution of Sir Harry Vane — The papists 
wriggle into office — The storm which exploded in a laugh — Its 
result — Marriage of the king — A courtier's plot — Dissolution of 
the "Convention" parliament — The new election — Animus of 
the Commons - — 400 



22 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Conference at the Savoy — Its unsatisfactory conclusion — Presby- 
terians 4 'kick against the pricks" — The convocation — The 
Commons — Their fierce legislation — Act of Uniformity — The 
blow falls — The flood of luxury and high-living in the church — 
Scotland and Ireland dragooned into conformity — Black St. 
Bartholomew — The oath — The ejected Puritans — Cruelty of 
the government — The martyr spirit — A countryman's advice — 
The sad farewell — Spirit of the Bartholomew act — Fuller's tes- 
timony — "The Five Groans of the Church" — The Conventicle 
Act — Its atrocity — The catacomb age of Puritanism revived — 
Scenes in the forest — The upper chamber — Pepys' diary — 
Fiat justitia, ruat caelum — The dispensing power — Komanists 
sheltered beneath the wing of a usurped prerogative — Animus 
of the court — The courtier and the archbishop — Sheldon and 
Dr. Allen — A page from Locke — Abhorrent statutes — All par- 
ties disgraced except the sufferers 416 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

By-paths of the story — Anecdotal and biographical incidents of the 
ejectment — Baxter — The outwitted magistrate — John Howe — 
His catholicity and one of its results — Owen — His character — 
John Bunyan — Bunyan before Justice Keelin — Bedford gaol — - 
The prison employment of the "immortal dreamer" — Other 
worthies of the exodus — Anecdotes illustrative of providential 
interpositions on behalf of the ejected — Case of Henry Ers- 
kine — Case of Oliver Heywood — Irrepressible zeal of the men- 
of the exodus — Illustrations — Characteristic traits — The army 
of "obscure rnartyrs" - 428 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

England a Pantheon of impiety — Wild ways and manners of the 
age — Midnight revels of the court— Licentiousness of litera- 
ture — Collier's tilt against English comedy — Popular demoral- 
ization — God sends a scourge — The plague — Its insidious pro- 
gress — London deserted — Death's trophies — Faithfulness of 
the Non-conformist clergy — The people flock to preaching — 
The death chant — The victims — Amazing conduct of the Court 
and bishops — This calamity does not stun them into sobriety — 
Sheldon's plan to starve the Dissenters into exile or conform- 
ity — The second sceurge — Great fire of 1666 — London in 
ashes — The respite 451 



CONTENTS. 



23 



CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

Disgrace of Clarendon — The king offended with the bishops — The 
Puritans begin to placate popular resentment — Threatening- 
aspect of foreign affairs — Complacent infamy of Charles — 
Coalition between the moderate Churchmen and the moderate 
Cavaliers to curb intolerance — -Change in Parliament — The 
new plan of comprehension — Rally of the party of the past — 
Yictory of the ultramontanists — Fearful spread of popery — Mad- 
ness of the bishops — Conventicle act reenacted and stiffened — 
Swarm of informers — Heroism of the Dissenters — The Triple 
Alliance — The Cabal — The king — The new councillors — The 
programme of Louis XIV. — England the vassal of France — The 
mandate obeyed — Second marriage of the duke of York — A 
cunning scheme — The Puritans and the dispensing power — In- 
solence and authority of the Romanists — Charles and the Par- 
liament: — "In the dark valley" — The Test Act-— The Bye-House 
Plot — An anecdote — The Meal-tub Plot — Alliance between the 
moderate Churchmen and the Non- conformists grows closer — 
"Whigs and Tories — The first trophy — The Exclusion Bill — Dis- 
solution of Parliament — Renewed persecution of the Puritans — 
The double motive — King and priest — Death of Charles II. 460 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Moloch succeeds Belial — Character of James II. — The solemn 
lie — England cozened — The awkward dissembler — The new 
king's raid for Romanism — An incident — James and the Com- 
mons — The address — Persecution of the Puritans — Immunity 
of the papists — The insurrection of Monmouth — It is made the 
pretext for increased anti-protestant severity — Jeffries — The 
legal campaign — James renews his schemes for the overthrow 
of English Protestantism and the nationalization of the papal 
creed-— A record of tyranny — Alarm of the Established church — 
Its counter effort — The king forbids all opposition to Roman- 
ism — Seeks an alliance with the Dissenters — Feelings of the 
Puritans — Their retrospect — Their patriotism— The court wages 
a fierce war against the Established church— Imprisonment and 
trial of the bishops — Popular enthusiasm — James fixes a gulf 
between him and the English church — His folly— England loses 
all continental influence — The king and the army— Romanism 
struts in the royal purple — The hope — The hope quenched — 
The supposititious heir — The dernier ressort — The coalition — 
Secret negotiations with William of Orange — Activity of the 
bishops against the king— Lloyd and the Puritans— The prom- 



24 



CONTENTS. 



ise — Animus of the Dissenters — The Whigs join the coalition — 
The Tories desert the court — William and Mary invited to inter- 
vene for the salvation of Protestantism — William of Orange — 
His high character and European importance — He concludes 
to intervene — Lands in England — Flight of James — The glori- 
ous revolution of 1688 — Congratulations — William's interview 
with the Dissenting clergy — His speech — The edict of tolera- 
tion — Laus Deo — Character and mission of the English Puri- 
tans 471 



A 

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEB I, 

A RETROSPECT. 

We have reached the epoch of Christian democ- 
racy. In the nineteenth century ideas rule ; empty 
titles do not domineer. Christendom is under a 
government of opinion and morning newspapers. 
Popes and kings no longer mark the ages. Luther 
and Calvin, Faust and Fulton, Howard and Ben- 
tham shape the ethics and mould the material in- 
terests of society. •Churches and open Bibles rep- 
resent the controlling influences of modern times. 
Thrones and the Vatican are " twin relics of bar- 
barism ;" they serve as milestones, and show how 
far civilization has travelled. 

This record is especially true of the Saxon race. 
The remote East still gropes, like a blind Samson, 
for the pillars of its prison-house. The Bomanic 
races only slowly emerge from the dungeons of the 
Inquisition. But enough, has been gained to show 
that Christianity now strikes the diapason of hu- 



26 



HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



man affairs. The Papacy may never more fetter 
lips and taboo progress. The wave of tyrannical 
rule shall never sweep so far westward as to fill 
once more with miniature tyrants the robber-cas- 
tles of the Rhine. Upon the future God sets the 
seal of his apostleship. The race to this goal has 
been run for, "not without heat and toil." Thought, 
the earthquake of conscience, has shaped a unique 
era. The Titans heaving beneath the mountains 
have thrown up the soil of a new regime. The dis- 
tinctive trait of this age 'is a puissant and evange- 
lized individuality. At length Christianity teaches 
the inestimable value of every human soul. The 
toil of eighteen hundred years cries, " Eureka ! I 
have found the diamond of an immortal soul and 
an equal manhood." 

This grand truth was born of the Reformation, 
and it is the outgrowth of the New Testament. Its 
sturdy growth in England and in America is due to 
the persistent nurture of the Puritans, those lineal 
descendants of the reformers <af the sixteenth cen- 
tury. For " Puritanism was the natural, inevitable 
fruit of the Reformation. Henry YIII. was the 
remote author of the Bartholomew act. Baxter 
was the true representative of Cranmer ; and the 
ejected clergy of the reign of Charles II. were the 
spiritual successors of the martyrs of Smithfield 
under the rule of Mary."* 

Lord Bacon, as he takes his march down the 
centuries, may lay one hand upon the telegraph, 

Stowell, Hist of the Puritaaa^ in England, Preface, p. 12. 



A KETKOSPECT. 



27 



and place the other upon the steam-engine, and 
say, " These are mine, for I taught you to invent." 
So the Puritans, peering through the misty centu- 
ries to catch a view of the garnered fruit of their pain 
and sacrifice, the overflowing lap, the cunning fin- 
gers, happy labor vocal on every hill-side, commerce 
whitening every sea, societies for the amelioration 
of mankind taking up the four corners of the globe, 
the press largely evangelized, a Christian literature, 
whole continents dotted with school -houses and 
churches, may echo of these elements of modern 
civilization, " You too are ours, for we taught you 
to believe in God.." 

It is quite the fashion now in certain circles to 
vilify Puritanism; pigmies run up and down its 
sides striving to measure it with their yard-sticks. 
Dizzy savants mock and sneer. Infidel letters snarl 
and sputter. The votaries of an emasculated Chris- 
tianity, who "run after strange gods," growl and 
snap. Men of latitudinarian principles and selfish 
greed, "lewd fellows of the baser sort," debauchees, 
the scum of corner groggeries, exhaust their vile 
rhetoric and shout themselves hoarse in denounc- 
ing the Puritans. 

But they are not original in their abuse. Laud 
abused them as cordially more than two hun- 
dred years ago. The names of the Puritans were 
linked with epithets of hatred, generations before 
the birth of these "latter-day saints" of material- 
ism. The Puritans withstood the onset of the pro- 
fane wits of the Eestoration. Dryden and the rest 



28 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



could not lampoon and laugh them out of existence. 
Tipsy cavaliers, pausing after each fresh glass to 
hiccough curses upon them, could not blast their 
fair fame. Is their posthumous reputation to be 
tarnished b j the empty wind of modern scoffers ? 

Undoubtedly many good men on either conti- 
nent earnestly dissent both from the distinctive 
religious tenets and from the political philosophy 
of Puritanism. But these do not stoop to retail the 
exploded gossip of coffee-houses and the effete slan- 
der of bagnios. The more candid of them readily 
recognize that there is in the annals of the Puritans 
much of truth to enlighten the mind, much of ro- 
mantic beaiuvy to kindle the imagination, much of 
Christian heroism to thrill and renovate the heart. 

At all events, the Puritans were the creators of 
moral America ; and it is not fit that they should 
be suffered to go down the ages clothed in the dis- 
torted history of heated foemen. Who shall object, 
if fair historic statements assist them to emerge 
from the vulgar pillory of misconception in which 
the malice of a beaten monarchy and the spite of a 
Romanized priesthood have held them with patient 
vindictiveness through two hundred years ? 

It has been well said, that in the pursuit of truth 
blind partisanship should be excluded, and that in 
this case it is quite possible to conclude, on the ev- 
idence of facts, whether the Puritans were essen- 
tially right or wrong. Whatever decision may be 
reached, it is momentously important to familiarize 
ourselves somewhat minutely with the vivid and 



A BETBOSPECT. 



29 



checkered story of those " sane giants and giants 
gone mad," who have played so central a part in 
the history of twice a dozen decades, 

' ' The dead but sceptred sovereigns who still rule 
Our spirits from their urns." 

"In order that this study may he useful, it 
should have a character of universality. To con- 
fine the history of a people within the space of a 
few years, or even of a century, would deprive it 
both of truth and life. "We might indeed have tra- 
ditions, chronicles, and legends, but there would be 
no history. History is a wonderful organism, no 
part of which can be retrenched. To understand 
the present, we must know the past. Society, like 
man himself, has its infancy, youth, maturity, and 
old age. Ancient pagan society spent its infancy 
in the East, in the midst of the anti-Hellenic races, 
had its youth in the animated epoch of the Greeks, 
its manhood in the stern period of Roman great- 
ness, and sheltered its old age under the decline of 
the Empire. Modern society has passed through 
analogous stages ; at the time of the Reformation 
it attained its legal majority."* 

These slow and distant preparations form one 
of the distinctive characteristics of history. Cuvier 
said, borrowing the idea from St. Hilaire, that the 
whole bony structure of every animal grew from the 
idea of a single bone. Grant him that, and he could 
complete the whole bony structure. That is what 
preparatory eras are in history; they may seem 
* DAubigne, Reformation in England, p. 18. 



30 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



insignificant, but they are the primal bone ; they 
are at once the prophecy and the guaranty of the 
completed future. 

The birth of Christianity in England is shrouded 
in tradition.* In the absence of authoritative data, 
it is only possible to guess more or less shrewdly at 
the hidden fact. It has been conjectured that " in 
the second Christian century, vessels frequently 
sailed to the savage shores of Britain from the 
ports of Asia Minor, Alexandria, and the Greek 
colonies in Gaul," and that " among the merchants 
busied in calculating the profits they could make 
upon the merchandise with which their ships were 
freighted, there would occasionally be found a few 
pious men from the banks of the Meander or the 
Thermos, conversing peacefully about the birth, 
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, 
and rejoicing at the prospect of saving by these 
glad tidings the pagans towards whom they were 
steering."t 

Through some such apostleship as this, nominal 
Christianity was introduced into Britain.^ The 
island had been known to the Phoenicians, those 
earliest navigators, several centuries before the 
Boman conquest ;§ nor was it terra incognita to the 
Carthaginian and the Grecian merchants.! The 
most ancient inhabitants of Britain are believed to 

* Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 1, chap. 1. Lingard, Hist. 
Eng., vol. 1, ch. 1. Hume, vol. 1, on. 1. 

f DAubigne, Reformation in England, p. 19. 
X Bede, Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, cap. 23. 

§ Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, vol . 1, book 1. || Ibid. 



A RETROSPECT. 



31 



have sprung from the Cimmerian and the Celtic 
stocks, and to have wandered thither through 
Gaul* 

Of the singularly wretched condition of primeval 
Britain, historians give striking instances. Nor did 
the introduction of the Eoman civility suffice in any 
marked degree to elevate the Britons. The hea- 
thenism of the Druids was simply supplanted by 
the more polished paganism of the classic mythol- 
ogy, tkat one-eyed leader of the blind. Then at an 
indefinite period an anomalous Christianity swayed 
a feeble and irregular sceptre ; but with the wane 
of the Roman rule, the restless energy of Druidism 
began to encroach upon the ill-defined domain of 
the new ethics, and where Christianity was not ab- 
solutely swallowed up, it was fatally distorted by 
the hideous aboriginal superstitions. Of the vicis- 
situdes of this struggle no authentic history remains 
to us. The most careful antiquarian, as he bends 
over the relics of this fabulous past, can decipher 
naught but the idle records of a legendary and por- 
tentous hagiology.f 

A little later came the Saxon invasion. The 
resistless barbarians streamed from their German 
forests, bringing with them the Tartaric idolatry of 
the North. The grim superstition of the Druids, 
the obsolete paganism of Borne, the venerable 
forms of Christianity, all were absorbed, or at least 
beaten back, and joining hands with the genius of 

* Bede, lib. 1. Punchard, Hist, of Congregationalism, 
t Webb, Life of Wicldiffe, p. G3. 



32 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



British independence, they retired to impenetrable 
retreats and mountain solitudes. The island was 
abandoned to the spirit of Odin, and for upwards of 
a century the gospel was lost to the kingdoms of the 
heptarchy.* 

The reintroduction of Christianity was effected 
by Gregory, surnamed the Great. Before his assump- 
tion of the tiara, he chanced one day to stand in the 
market-place of Borne. While idling there he ob- 
served several youthful Saxons chained in the«slave- 
gangs. Struck by their beauty and intelligence, he 
demanded of them their name. "Angles" was the 
reply. "Angels" exclaimed Gregory, "you truly 
are, and you ought to be joined to the celestial 
company." On being told that they came from the 
province of De'ira, he cried, " Aye, cle ira indeed ; 
from the ivrath of God they must be plucked." 
When he learned that iElla was the name of their 
king, he instantly replied, " Alleluiah ! Alleluiahs 
must be chanted by them in the dominions of their 
sovereign, "t 

The design which was born of this solemn tri- 
fling never dropped from the prelate's mind ; and 
when in after years he was advanced to the pon- 
tifical throne, he dispatched an ecclesiastical com- 
mission of forty monks, headed by a Roman priest 
named Augustine, to the shores of Britain.:): 

• Hume, Hist, of Eng., vol. 1, ch. 1, passim. Bede, lib. 1, 
cap. 23. 

f Bede, lib. 1, cap. 23. Grey, Epist., lib. 10, epist. 56. 
} Bede, lib. 1, cap. 23. Spelman, Com., p. 82. 



A RETROSPECT, 



33 



A point oVappid already existed. Bertha, a 
Frankisk princess who had married Ethelbert king 
of Kent, was devoted to the Christian faith. Au- 
gustine took advantage of this, and it was not long 
ere the cenobite dispatched to Borne glowing ac- 
counts of his multitudinous spiritual conquests ; 
while the pontifical court exulted as much over 
these peaceful trophies as their ancestors had been 
wont to do over their most sanguinary triumphs 
and splendid victories.* 

But it must not be thought that the Christianity 
with which the eldest kingdom of the heptarchy was 
so quickly inoculated, sprang pure and unsullied 
from the primitive fountain. The transition from 
apostolic simplicity to papal corruption had already 
commenced. 

The first danger which beset the gospel was 
from the spirit of paganism. Both the schools of 
philosophy and the haunts of vulgar superstition 
were pervaded by elements at mortal variance with 
the simple essence of Christianity. From the wis- 
dom of the heathen world, the new religion had 
accordingly to encounter either the peril of fierce 
opposition, or the still more dangerous and insid- 
ious offer of coalition. If the earth-born philoso- 
phy of the age were unequal to a conflict with the 
truth of God, it might at least scheme to hold a 
divided empire ; and with this view it stretched 
forth the right hand of fellowship. The result was 
that the faith of Christ was gradually transformed 

* Hume, vol. 1, p. 27. 
2* 



34 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



into the likeness of a human science, wherein the 
intellect of man might freely and boldly take its 
pastime. 

Still more infections were the gay ritual and the 
imaginative mythology of paganism. Had an apos- 
tle revisited the earth at the end of a dozen decades 
from the period of his ministry, and looked at noth- 
ing but the outward church, he might have been 
tempted to fear that the truth for which he had 
pleaded, perhaps died, had been transformed into a 
gorgeous spectacle, a mystic pageantry, its painful 
and laborious evangelists into pompous actors, its 
places of worship into splendid theatres. 

In primitive times the chalices were of wood 
and the ministers of gold ; now the church was 
content with golden chalices and wooden priests. 

Spirituality died out of religion with a shriek. 
The subtle essence of Christianity was frozen in 
formalism." Religion became an incarnate Phari- 
see. The restless wit of man invented exorcisms 
for demons, absolutions for sin, and the thousand 
absurdities of the ceremonial law, and then, paus- 
ing with self-satisfied blasphemy, rebaptized the 
impious progeny of his own distempered brain with 
the sacred name of Christianity. 

From these abuses grew the edifice of the papa- 
cy, whose corner-stone was blasphemy, whose pil- 
lars were spiritual death, and whose crowning arch 
was arrogant worklliness. " From the midst of this 
temple a portentous spectre was seen to arise, an 

* Sec Milton's essay ' ' On the Keformation of England. " 



A EETEOSPECT. 



35 



apparition habited in the robes of priesthood, and 
surrounded by all the attributes of majesty, holding 
in one hand the rod of worldly power, and in the 
other a flaming sword which turned in every direc- 
tion to guard the citadel of spiritual dominion. For 
ages did this stupendous phantom continue to 
spread out before the astonished and awe-struck 
nations, until its feet seemed to rest upon the 
earth, while its head towered among the stars."* 

Such a Christianity, propagated among pagans, 
could be little else than a change of superstitions. 
Remembering these things, it is not difficult to ac- 
cede to the statement of a recent historian, that 
while " it would be too much to assert that there 
was no intelligent piety in Britain in these ages, it 
is still perfectly apparent, from the history of the 
times, that Christianity had little else than a name 
to live, while it was dead. Flowing to the Saxons 
from the corrupted fountain-head of papal usurpa- 
tion, it must have been the waters of death, rather 
than of life, to the ignorant islanders. 

"The church history of the heptarchy is a 
loathsome story of papal imposition on the one 
hand, and of ignorant and superstitious devotion 
on the other. Many of the putrescent abomina- 
tions of Rome were incorporated into the Saxon 
church. Reverence for their sovereign lord the 
pope was the first article of the Saxon creed. A 
devout regard for all that wore the sacerdotal habit 
stood next in order. The worship of relics and 
* Webb, Life of Wicldiffe, p. 39. 



36 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



saints was held to be scarcely less important than 
the worship of God himself. The payment of 1 Pe- 
ter's pence' would purchase pardon for a thou- 
sand sins. A pilgrimage to Rome, the establish- 
ment of a monastery, a gift of property to the 
church, would cover the most flagitious crimes."* 
Christ was lost sight of. He was replaced by the 
Virgin. In Milton's phrase, "nearly all the in- 
ward parts of worship, which issue from the native 
strength of the soul, ran lavishly to the upper skin, 
and there hardened into a crust of formality."f 

Upon the canvas of this picture is painted the 
story of British Christianity through a thousand 
years. The essential situation was unchanged by the 
fierce onslaughts of the Danish freebooters. Even 
in the enlightened reign of Alfred the arrogance of 
ecclesiasticism was as unbridled as in the darkest 
ages of the heptarchy. That energetic and accom- 
plished prince either dreaded to provoke a conflict 
with the seeming omnipotence of the papacy by 
attempting to stem the torrent of abuses, or he had 
no disposition, absorbed in political reform, to 
trench upon what was universally esteemed to be 
the domain of Rome. 

The great gain under Alfred's reign was the 
impulse which was given to learning. Since the 
Saxon invasion, the Greeks and Latins, and even 
the converted Goths, had looked upon the island 
with unutterable dread. "The soil," said they, "is 

* Punchard, Hist, of Congregationalism, vol. 1, pp. 208, 209. 
f Milton, On Kcformation in England. 



A EETEOSPECT 



37 



covered with serpents ; the air is thick with deadly 
exhalations ; the souls of the departed are trans- 
ported thither at midnight from the shores of Gaul. 
Eerrymen, the sons of Erebus and Night, admit 
these phantoms into their boats, and listen with a 
shudder to* their mysterious whisperings." Britain, 
whence light was one day to be shed over the hab- 
itable globe, was long esteemed the trysting-place 
of the dead. 

In Alfred's age this superstitious notion was 
only slowly dying away. He found " the monaster- 
ies burned, the monks butchered or dispersed, the 
libraries destroyed."* He himself complained that 
" not a priest south of the Thames could translate 
Latin or Greek into his mother-tongue. "t Britain 
floundered in the. Serbonian bay of ignorant bar- 
barism ; he assisted his country to emerge and 
stand upon high land. Schools were everywhere 
established. The venerable university of Oxford 
was founded, endowed with many privileges, and 
supported by appropriate revenues ;J while cele- 
brated continental scholars were invited to make 
his court their home, and such as came were mag- 
nificently recompensed.! 

Thus the future was secured to liberty. Schools 
insured churches. Learning was the avant-courrier 
of reform. 

* Hume, vol. 1, p. 7<L f Ibid. J Ibid. 

§ Spelman, Life of Alfred, cd. 1709, p. 120. 



88 



HIS TOE Y OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTER II. 

AN OASIS IN THE DESEET. 

After the death of Alfred, in the first year of the 
tenth century,* the heterogeneous elements which 
his plastic hand had moulded into seeming unity 
crumbled to pieces. Political and ecclesiastical 
affairs were all in confusion. 

The chief agent of this ruin was St. Dunstan. 
The history of superstition can scarcely present an- 
other name so infamous for brazen abuse of vulgar 
credulity and a prodigal application of the grossest 
machinery of imposture. 'His whole progress from 
an anchorite cell at Glastonbury to the primacy of 
England is one perpetual atrocity and fraud. His 
grand object was to erect the Benedictine order on 
the ruins of the national church, and to consign to 
monks the entire government of the state. t 

His commanding genius was well suited to this 
pernicious enterprise, and the success of his' machi- 
nations was astounding. His career forms a mon- 
ument of unscrupulous ambition such as might have 
appeared extravagant and monstrous even in the 
pages of romance. That his portrait has not been 
over colored however, we may know from this, that 
his biography has been written, not by calumnious 
adversaries, but by admiring and contemporary 

* Spclmau. Hume. Chron. Sax., p. 99. 
f Osborne in Anglia Sacra. W^fob, p. 72. 



AN OASIS IN THE DESEBT. 



3d 



chroniclers, while the gratitude of Rome has pre- 
served his name to this day on her rubric of canon- 
ization. r 

The struggle thus inaugurated marked one age 
and moulded the succeeding. The blazing embers 
of the quarrel were only quenched by the Norman 
conquest. When William the Conqueror passed 
the channel into England, he commenced a new 
regime. The unlawful raid of the Norman robber 
had been sanctified by the special benediction of 
pojoe Alexander II.* Still, when he learned that 
Hildebrand assumed to lasso both spiritual and tem- 
poral Europe to his feet, the Conqueror's haughty 
spirit refused to succumb. He refused to do fealty 
for his kingdom to the see of Koine ; and for once 
the crafty pontiff was foiled by a temper as reso- 
lute and arbitrary as his own. 

However, it was in this reign that Lanfranc, an 
Italian who had been promoted by the Conqueror 
to the primacy of England, urged the infliction of 
celibacy upon the clergy. He also introduced into 
the Saxon church the doctrine of the corporeal pres- 
ence in the sacrament. t But Lanfranc'sJ mind, 
lofty as it was, was not powerful enough to " rebuke 
the genius" of his master, and it still remains true 
that the main drift of William's reign ran counter 
to the supremacy of " the pope's proud prelacy." 

* Hume, Webb, Punchard, D'Aubigne, etc. 
f Webb, Life of Wickliffe, p. 73. 

^ Lanfranc succeeded Stigand, who was the last of the Saxon 
prelates. 



40 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



The gigantic scheme of Hildebrand for the erec- 
tion of St. Peter's chair into the throne of Chris- 
tendom, and thus effecting the restoration of Rome 
to her old position of mistress of the world, is re- 
corded in the blots which deform the history of me- 
diaeval Europe. 

The march of usurpation was for a time diverted 
from England by the inflexible sternness and rigor 
of the Conqueror, by the reckless obstinacy of Ru- 
fus,* and by the intelligent firmness of Henry Beau- 
clerc. 

But Borne could afford to bide her time, sure 
that a crop of more pliable kings would eventually 
spring up. She knew that the Beauclercs did not 
come in large bodies, nor march in battalions : they 
stray through the centuries, now and then one ; and 
he is the salt of a generation. 

In the mean time letters continued to advance. 
The learning of that epoch was not altogether 
healthy ; and Burke laments that " the infancy of 
British learning was suckled by the dotage of the 
Roman." Still, a monkish literature was better 
than none ; and gradually expanding beyond the 
sullen walls of the monasteries, it somewhat smooth- 
ed the shaggy barbarism of the age. 

Through all these years the papacy, not satis- 
fied with maintaining old privileges, constantly 
clamored for new ones. Its hungry maw no sops 
could satisfy ; and at length, when the reign of the 
first of the Plantagenets dawned, Rome claimed, 

* See Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 211. 



AN OASIS IN THE DESERT. 



41 



through the lips of Becket, the total immunity of 
ecclesiastics from the secular jurisdiction.* The 
controversy which ensued was long and bitter. 
How disastrously it ended for the interests of lib- 
erty history records. 

"It is the first step that costs," says the prov- 
erb ; and when England began to yield, she made 
no pause, but flung herself recklessly into the abyss. 
King John, the most despicable of crowned heads, 
the butt of his contemporaries' sarcasms, the stran- 
gler of his nephew, of whom his subjects said, " You 
are not a king, nor even a kingling" — fuisti rex, 
nunc fex — once a king, now a clown — became the 
pope's vassal, was his armed missionary, and even 
stooped to do homage to the pontiff's legate on his 
bended knees for his kingdom, and to pay tribute.f 

So low had the papacy brought England. 

Then came a phase of resistance to these usur- 
pations. Grostete protested, Bradwardine argued, 
Edward III. actively resisted Borne, and TVicklifTe 
was the John Baptist of the English Reformation. 

England, weary of the yoke of Borne, grew rest- 
less and began to fret. Wickliffe was the father of 
this dissent from Borne. Wickliffe was also the 
progenitor of the Puritans. 

It becomes of interest therefore, to glance briefly 
at the salient characteristics of his career. His 
era was an oasis in the desert. His words were 

* "Webb. Life of Wickliffe, p. 75. D'Aubigne, Eef. in Eng. 
f Matthew Paris, p. 231. Hume, Lingard, etc. Also Eoger 
of Wendover's Flowers of History, vol. 2, Bolen's ed., pp. 215, 271. 



42 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the first breatli of healthful doctrine which had 
passed over England for many a weary day. 

John Wickliffe was born in 1324.* He was cra- 
dled in a Yorkshire hamlet ;f but of his boyhood 
little is kaown4 In 1348 he was attending lectures 
at Oxford, where he sat at the feet of Bradwardine.§ 

At the outset, Wickliffe, like all who aspired to 
eminence in those days, devoted himself to scholas- 
tic philosophy ; and with such success, that his con- 
temporary and opponent Knighton has acknow- 
ledged that he was " second to none in philosophy, 
and that in scholastic subtlety he was altogether 
incomparable."! 

He was also learned in the civil and the canon 
law ; and he had grasped the municipal laws of 
England.! There was no domain of knowledge 
which he did not lay under contribution ; there ex- 
isted no peak of learning which the towering genius 
of this "admirable Crichton" of divinity did not im- 
pel him to scale. 

" It was well," remarks one of his biographers, 
"that Wickliffe went forth to his achievements 
sheathed in the panoply of the intellectual knight- 
errantry of his day ; that he was master of ' the nice 
fence and the active practice' of the schools, as 
well as potent to wield the two-edged sword of the 
Spirit. This happy combination of accomplish- 

* Webb, Life of Wickliffe, p. 99. Also Lewis, and other biog- 
raphers, f Ibid. $ Tunchard, vol. 1, p. 237. 
§ DAubigne, Ref. in Eng., p. 84. 
|| Knighton, De Eventibus Angliae, col. 2644. 
If Webb, Life of Wickliffe, p. 102. 



AN OASIS IN THE DESEBT. 



43 



ments served to win him the respect of all parties. 
It secured him the reverence of his followers, who 
must have seen with justifiable pride that their 
teacher was foremost among the sages and doctors 
of his time. It silenced the voice of disdain, and 
effectually disabled his adversaries from attempting 
to cast discredit upon his cause by ridiculing the 
ignorance and incapacity of the advocate."* 

Wickliffe having mastered the human sciences, 
next turned to the Scriptures.f Whatever study 
he commenced he aimed to exhaust. Of this study 
was begotten his conversion. He marked the fatal 
departure of the papacy from the biblical paths. 
The truths which he had discerned he determined 
to proclaim. The new moral world which he had 
discovered, the great Columbus of ethics felt con- 
strained to make known. 

" He commenced with prudence ; but being 
elected, in 1361, warden of Baliol, and in 1365 
warden of Canterbury college also, he began to set 
forth the doctrine of faith more energetically. His 
biblical and theological studies, his knowledge of 
theology, his penetrating mind, the purity of his 
life and manners, and his unbending courage, ren- 
dered him the object of general admiration. A 
profound teacher, like his master Bradwardine, and 
an eloquent preacher, he demonstrated to the learn- 
ed through the week what he intended to preach, 
and on Sunday he preached to the people what he 

* Webb, Life of Wickliffe, p. 105. 
f Punchard, vol. 1, p. 240. 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



had previously demonstrated. His disputations 
gave strength to his sermons, and his sermons shed 
new light on his disputations. He accused the 
clergy of having banished the holy Scriptures, and 
he required that the authority of the Bible should 
be reestablished in the church. Loud acclamations 
crowned these discussions, and the crowd of vulgar 
papists trembled with indignation when they heard 
the shouts of applause."* 

Wickliffe's public life had four phases. 

The first was political. 

The larger part of his life was spent in the reign 
of Edward III., one of the most vigorous and states- 
manlike of the English kings. King John had alien- 
ated the kingdom, and paid tribute to the pope.t 
The money had always been paid irregularly. Lat- 
terly all payments had ceased. Pope Urban Y., 
heedless of the laurels won by the conqueror at 
Crecy and Poitiers, summoned Edward III. to rec- 
ognize him as the legitimate sovereign of Eng- 
land, and to forward the annual rent of a thousand 
marcs. J In case of refusal, the king was cited to 
appear at Rome. 

The conqueror of the Yalois, irritated by this 
insolence of an Italian bishop, convened a Parlia- 
ment. The papal arrogance stirred England to 
its depths. In 1350 the statute of Provisors was 
passed. It was rendered a penal offence for any 

* DAubigne, Eef. in Eng., p. 85: f Chap. 2, p. 39. 

X Ranke, Hist, of the Pope's Pontificate of Urban V. Hume ; 
Lingard. 



AN OASIS IN THE DESEET. 



45 



one to procure a presentation to a benefice from 
the court of Borne.* By the subsequent statute of 
Prcemunire, any person who carried a cause before 
the pope by appeal from home jurisdiction was out- 
lawed, f 

" If the statute of mortmain put the pope in a 
sweat," says old Fuller, "this of prcemunire gave 
him a fit of fever.":]: 

Through all this controversy, "Wickliffe was ac- 
tive. At once an able politician and a fervent Chris- 
tian, he vigorously defended the rights of the Brit- 
ish crown against Bomish aggression. His tracts 
upon this momentous question are profound and 
statesmanlike. They created a sensation ; and at- 
tracting the attention of the king, he made Wick- 
liffe one of his chaplains.§ That act rang the death- 
knell to the papal claim to the sovereignty of Eng- 
land. 

The second phase of Wickliffe's ministry was, 
the preaching of the gospel to the poor. 

During the heat of the controversy on the sov- 
ereignty of Great Britain, Wickliffe had been dis- 
patched on a mission to the pope at Avignon. On 
his return, he was given the cure of Lutterworth ;|| 
and from that time a practical activity was added to 
his speculative and academic influence. 

"At Oxford," says D'Aubigne, "he spoke as a 
master to young theologians. There he had earned 



* Hume, vol. 1, p. 371, Keign of Edward HI. f Ibid. 

t Fuller, Chh. Hist., cent. 14, p. 118. 

§ D'Aubigne, p. 86. || Lewis, Webb, etc. 



46 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the honorable and unique title of ' The Gospel Doc- 
tor.' In his parish he addressed the people as a 
friend and pastor — a new and beautiful relation."* 

The third phase of his beneficent career was the 
translation of the Bible into English. Scholasti- 
cism had placed the Scriptures under ban. Rome 
assumed to be the infallible oracle ; and she pad- 
locked the evangelists in musty Latin. Wickliffe 
unlocked the dungeons of the imprisoned gospel, 
and set it free. 

The effect was prodigious. Minds were every- 
where enlightened ; souls were everywhere convert- 
ed ; the birth of a new era was hailed with accla- 
mations. But the priests snarled and threatened. 
" Master Wickliffe," said the monks, " has, by 
translating the Bible into English, rendered it more 
acceptable and intelligible to laymen, and even to 
women, than it has hitherto been to the learned. 
The gospel pearl is everywhere cast out and trod- 
den under foot of swine. "f 

Theology was Wickliffe's fourth phase ; and in 
the cloister of Oxford he began to inculcate the 
distinctive doctrines of Protestantism — salvation 
through faith in Christ, and the sole infallibility of 
the sacred Scriptures.^ 

Europe heard this brave preaching aghast. The 
mendicant friars, who swarmed in England, listened 

* D'Aubigne, p. 87. 

f Knighton, De Eventibus Anglise, p. 264. 
% See the various biographies of Wickliffe ; also Punchard's 
Summary of his Doctrines, vol. 1, pp. 2G9-310, passim. 



AN OASIS IN THE DESEKT. 47 



in agony. "I should suspect," says Fuller, "that 
his preaching had no salt in it who made no galled 
horse wince." 

Wickliffe did not tread on flowers. He was 
more or less persecuted throughout his whole ca- 
reer ; but during the life of Edward III., the favor 
of that gallant prince sheltered the bold reformer ; 
the throne of England was his segis. On Edward's 
death, in 1377, it seemed certain that the Roman 
court would avenge itself ; but the notorious papal 
schism which immediately succeeded, occasioned by 
the election of two pontiffs to the vacant throne of 
Gregory XI., once more saved Wickliffe. Through 
the remainder of his life, the scandalous quarrels of 
the rival popes at Avignon and at Rome so occu- 
pied the attention of the church that the great Eng- 
lishman enjoyed comparative immunity. 

The story of Wickliffe's life reads like a page 
culled from the chapter of romance. But through 
all vicissitudes, he lived to see his sixty-first year ; 
and he died in the very service of the altar.* 

Had Wickliffe completed that reformation which 
he only inaugurated, the Protestantism of England 
might have been moulded in the form of the Prot- 
estantism of republican Geneva ; for " it must be 
plainly confessed," remarks a modern English critic, 
" that there is a close resemblance between Wick- 
liffe and at least the better part of the Puritans who 
troubled our Israel in the reign of Elizabeth and 
her successors. The likeness is sufficiently strik- 
* Lewis, Webb, Fox, Vaughan, etc. 



48 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



ing to mark him out as their progenitor and proto- 
type."* 

Singularly gifted, ripe in experience, a profound 
teacher, a pure iconoclast, a luminous Christian, an 
enlightened patriot, Hampden and Milton need not 
blush to take Wickliffe, the one by the right hand, 
the other by the left, and say, " Behold our father !" 

* Webb, p. 325. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



49 



CHAPTEK III. 

THE DAWN OF DAY. 

It lias been said that William of Normandy, 
Edward III., Wickliffe, and the Reformation, are 
the four ascending steps of Protestantism in Eng- 
land. Up three of these the gospel had already 
climbed ; it now stood on the last, and prepared 
to hurl the papal usurper from the throne of the 
island. 

Even within ten years after the death of Wick- 
lifTe, Britain appeared to have been revolutionized. 
Lollardisrn* seemed about to new model the church. 
To the licentious ostentation of the papal clergy, 
Wickliffe's disciples opposed a Christian humility; 

* The true definition of the word Lollard has been the subject 
of no little controversy. Like the terms Huguenot, Puritan, and 
Methodist, conferred in later times, it seems to have been origi- 
nally bestowed as a contemptuous nickname. Fuller appears to 
think that the Lollards were so called from Walter Lollardus, one 
of their German teachers. Church History, p. 163, folio edition. 
Speed, quoted in Walsingham, p. 588, folio ed., says that "Wick- 
liffe's followers were, in the phrase of those dark days, called Lol- 
lards, (lolium signifieth cockle and such weeds ;) whereas, in truth, 
they endeavored to extirpate all pernicious weeds which, through 
time, sloth, and fraud, had crept into the field of God's church." 
Mosheim thinks that the name was derived from the German 
word lullen or lollen, which means to sing softly, whence our Eng- 
lish word lull ; and this because the Lollards made great use of 
singing in their worship. Cent. 14, pt. 2, ch. 2, n. 68. See also 
Punchard, vol. 1, pp. 314-316. 

Turin**. 3 



50 



HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



to the degenerate asceticism of the mendicant or- 
ders, a spiritual and free life. "Every minister," 
said they, " can administer the sacraments, and is 
competent to confer the cure of souls equally with 
the pope."* The Lollards recognized a ministry 
independent of Borne, founded, not on the permis- 
sion of popes or the decrees of councils, but on the 
Scripture text. 

Around these pure teachers all classes crowded ; 
grim-visagecl men-at-arms listened sword in hand, 
ready to defend them ; the nobility began to take 
down the images from their baronial chapels ;f 
even the walls of the cathedrals were placarded 
with parchments satirizing the friars and lampoon- 
ing the vices which they defended. J Indeed so 
strong did Lollardism feel itself to be, that, in 
1395, a petition was presented to Parliament urg- 
ing a radical reformation^ 

Nor was the agitation confined to the island. 
The gospel breeze swept across the Channel, across 
the Netherlands — those countries which the plod- 
ding patience of ages has wrenched from the ocean 
and dedicated to civilization and religion — across 
Germany, across Bohemia. || Sleepers were awak- 
ened. The shroud of souls was riven. Wicklifte's 
pamphlets were received with enthusiasm. Mediae- 
val Europe, blind and shackled as it was, half stag- 

" Walsingham, p. 388. 

t Knighton, Dc Eventibus, etc., lib. 5, p. 2GG0. } Ibid. 
§ Lewis, Life of Wicldiffe, p. 338 ; Webb, and others. 
|| Waddington, Ch. History. Gillett, Life of Huss. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



51 



gered to its feet to salute the new tenets. Huss 
was Wickliffe's spiritual son ; the lurid fire of Con- 
stance was kindled in England. The exiled Yau- 
dois, driven by the fierce harries of the Roman cru- 
saders from fair Languedoc to seek shelter beneath 
the crags of mountainous Bohemia, hastened, un- 
der the influence of Wickliffe's inspiration, to reor- 
ganize that ancient church which the Inquisition 
had failed to choke. 

But while the Continent was thus stirring, Eng- 
land was torn by persecution. The papacy had 
long followed the scent of heresy with keen nos- 
trils, but with muzzled jaws. It had quitted its 
lair, and, like a long-leashed and hungry hound, it 
now sprang at the throat of its victim. 

Richard II., the weak successor of Edward III., 
was formally deposed, and a usurper bought the 
crown by steeping himself to the lips in oaths to 
suppress Lollardism. 

Rome, ever watchful to take advantage of revo- 
lutions, had engineered this- one. Arundel, a cun- 
ning priest and an astute politician, was then pri- 
mate of England. He advised Henry IY. to con- 
solidate his mushroom power by conciliating the 
papacy. The king, remembering that a former 
pontiff had sanctified the robber-raid of the Nor- 
man conqueror, esteemed Arundel's advice to be 
good, and he muttered, "Persecute,"* 

Then martyrdom succeeded martyrdom. The 
Lollards, baring their heads to " the pelting of the 

* Fuller, Ch. History, p. 153. 



52 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



pitiless storm," could only wail out their agony in 
God's ear ; they sobbed themselves to sleep in 
Jesus. 

The persecutions covered a large part of a cen- 
tury. The hunted reformers hid themselves among 
the lower classes, preached in secret, burrowed in 
English catacombs,* or bore stout witness to the 
truth in massive dungeon-keeps and " Lollard tow- 
ers."f Even the sanctity of the grave was violated; 
and by a decree of the Council of Constance, Wick- 
liffe's mouldering bones were disinterred and burn- 
ed, while the ashes were thrown into a neighboring 
brook.$ "The brook," says Fuller, "did convey 
his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into 
the narrow seas, they into the main ocean, and 
thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his 
doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world 
over,"t 

The intervention of the civil wars of the "Roses" 
in the latter half of the fifteenth Century, somewhat 
blunted the edge of persecution. Between the em- 
battled ranks of the houses of York and Lancaster 
the demon of religious bigotry stood disarmed. 
Indeed, scarred and barbarized by war, civility 
itself seemed at its last gasp. " The sound of bells 
in the steeple," remarks an old historian, "was 
drowned by the noise of drums and trumpets. 
And yet this good was done by the civil wars, that 

* See Raynauld, Ann. 1414, and onwards. f Ibid. 

\ Lewis, Life of Wickliffe ; "Webb ; Punchard, etc. 
§ Fuller, Church History. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



53 



the j diverted the prelates from troubling the Lol- 
lards ; so that this very civil storm was a shelter to 
those poor souls, and the heat of these intestine 
enormities cooled the persecution."* 

Still, that quaint old rnartyrologist, Fox, in- 
forms us, that " from the time of Kichard II. there 
was no reign of any king in which some good man 
or devoted woman did not suffer the pains of fire 
for the religion and true testimony of Christ Je- 
sus."t 

Marked by these vicissitudes, the generations 
hastened by on winged feet. In 1485, the interne- 
cine struggle touched its climax on the fatal plain 
of Bosworth ; that subtle and enigmatic tyrant Rich- 
ard III. was hurled from his stolen throne into an 
untimely grave. TJie Lancastrian conqueror was 
proclaimed king under the title of Henry VII., and 
this title-deed to the kingdom, substantiated by 
battle, was in the following year rendered doubly 
valid by a marriage which seated the representa- 
tives both of the White and the Eed Roses on the 
throne.}. 

Then the first of the Tuclors began to exhibit 
the intolerant spirit which had animated his ances- 
tors. He showed the same subserviency to the 
clergy ; he manifested the same unchristian malig- 
nity^ 

s Fuller, Church History. f Fox, Acts, etc. 

% Hume, Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. 

§ For a striking account of the persecutions under Henry VH., 
see Fox, Acts and Monuments, vol. 1, p. 882, and onwards, pas- 
sim. 



54= HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



But the hour of vengeance was already in God's 
heart. It hurried forward with speedy but stealthy 
feet. "Retribution," it is said, "has a foot of vel- 
vet, but a hand of steel." In the midst of the moan- 
ing of God's children, an arm was uplifted which 
was soon to smite the scalp of this gigantic and 
godless oppression. 

In the tenth year of the sixteenth century the 
reign of Henry VIII. commenced — an event for ever 
memorable. It was the beginning of modern his- 
tory. In that new era " all those events happened, 
and all those revolutions began," says Bolingbroke, 
" which have produced so vast a change in the 
manners, customs, and interests of European na- 
tions, and in the whole policy, ecclesiastical and 
civil, of these parts of the world."* 

In morals, as in physics, after an ebb comes the 
full tide. A calm, devout, suffering, but patient 
protest against the prevalent corruptions of relig- 
ion had been uttered in England since the death of 
Wickliffe. Now the invention of printing, the cir- 
culation of books, the dispersion of learned men, 
and the persuasive teaching of Continental reform- 
ers united to give that worn protest fresh life and 
emphasis. Across the yawning chasm of a hun- 
dred years men stretched their palms to join hands 
with the Lollards of the age of Wickliffe. A new 
light dazzled in the horizon. Luther launched the 
Reformation in Germany. Zwingle awoke the joy- 
's Bolingbroke, Letters on the Study and Use of History, let- 
ter G. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



55 



ous echoes of the Swiss Alps by the repetition of 
the magic words, " Religious Liberty." Tyndale 
once more unchained the Bible through an English 
translation. 

A host of devout, learned, and ingenious men in 
England labored to effect a reformation. Every 
weapon which honorable men could use was brought 
out from the intellectual armory and pressed into 
active use. The universities were early revolution- 
ized. Bilney, converted by reading Erasmus' Greek 
Testament,* began to preach. Latimer arose, and 
he maintained from the Cambridge pulpits that 
the Bible ought to be read in the vernacular.t 
"The Author of Holy Scripture," said he, "is God 
himself ; and this Scripture partakes of the might 
and eternity of its Author. There is neither king 
nor emperor that is not bound to obey it. Let us 
beware of those by-paths of human tradition, full 
of stones, brambles, and uprooted trees. Let us 
follow the straight road of the word. It does not 
concern us what the fathers have done, but rather 
what they ought to have done. "J Then came 
Barnes and Frith, the bosom friends of Tyndale, 
and the two Ridleys and Cranmer followed. These 
men, the fathers of the English Reformation, were 
all illustrious scholars, and they had most of them 
been eminent either for zeal or piety in the Roman 

« Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 4, p. 633. 
f D'Aubigne, p. 247. 

% Latimer's Sermons, Park. Soc, vol. 1, p. 70, Sermon on the 
Plough. 



56 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



communion. Their opposition to the papacy was 
the result of their intimate knowledge of the vulgar 
errors of the holy see. This acquaintance with the 
Babylonish mysteries added fresh pungency to 
their epigrams and gave new point to their sat- 
ires. 

"Do you know," said Latimer, "who is the most 
diligent bisho}D in England? I see } t ou listening 
and hearkening that I should name him. I will 
tell you. It is the devil. He is never out of his 
diocese; you shall never find him idle. Call for 
him when you will, he 's ever at home, he is ever at 
the plough. You shall never find him remiss, I war- 
rant you. Where the devil is resident, there away 
with books and up with' candles ; away with Bibles, 
and up with beads ; away with the light of the gos- 
pel, and up with the light of wax tapers, yea, at 
noonday; down with Christ's cross, up with the 
purgatory pick-purse : away with clothing the na- 
ked, the poor, the impotent ; up with decking of 
images and gay garnishing of stones and stocks ; 
down with God and his most holy word; up with 
traditions, human councils, and a blinded pope. 
Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow 
the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle 
and darnel."* 

The grand distinctive principle of Tyndale, of 
Frith, of Latimer, of the Bidleys, of Bradford, was 
the divine authority and sufficiency of the sacred 

<* Latimer's Sermons, Park. Soc., vol. 1, p. 70, Sermon on the 
Plough. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



57 



Scriptures, and the consequent rejection of the 
earth-born authority of popes, councils, fathers, 
and kings, in all matters that pertained to religion. 
The Bible was their standard, as it was Luther's 
and Bucer's ; to that touchstone they brought every 
thing. If the Scripture approved it, well; if not, 
then away with it. 

It was this principle which gave emphasis and 
color to their apostleship, as it did afterwards to 
that of their descendants the Puritans. It was this 
which sustained Tyndale in his weary exile — this 
which enabled Latimer and Bidley and Bradford 
at a later day to brave the awful fire. 

But in the mean time this healthy stir was 
frowned upon by the government. Cardinal "Wol- 
sey, who really controlled England, was a deter- 
mined and unscrupulous enemy of the Beforma- 
tion. The king himself had entered the lists 
against Martin Luther, and in grateful return for 
his services, the pontiff had crowned him Defender 
of the Faith* In 1521, Henry fulminated a decree 
against home heresy.t Up to the year 1527, the 
record of the Bluebeard king was that of the most 
blind and unscrupulous adhesion to Borne. :[ 

Then occurred a strange event : a question of 
divorce broke the chains which bound England to 
the papal throne. 

Soon after his assiimption of the purple, Henry 

* Fronde, Hist. Eng., Henry Vm. 

| Strype, Eccl. Mem. Burnet, vol. 1, part 1, book 1, pp. 18, 
19. X Ibid. 

3* 



58 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



YIII. married his brother Arthur's widow, Catha- 
rine of Aragon. Many circumstances combined to 
render the nuptials ill-omened. The lady was the 
young monarch's elder by six years.* Henry dis- 
liked her ; and when first told that the union was 
under consideration, he formally protested against 
it.f " "Very many, both cardinals and divines, did 
oppose it" on scriptural grounds.^ Henry YII. 
himself, the originator and chief promoter of the 
match, is said, when on his death-bed, to have be- 
come convinced of its illegality, and to have charged 
his son not to consummate it.§ Yet, spite of these 
objections, any one of which might have been es- 
teemed sumcient to checkmate the plan, political 
reasons crowned it with success. Catharine was 
the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella ; she was 
also the aunt of the emperor Charles V., the Char- 
lemagne of his age, and she brought the kingdom 
an immense dowry. II It was thought also that the 
marriage would strengthen and enrich the island, 
bind England and Spain in indissoluble bonds, and 
chain both to the Roman see.1" These potent argu- 

* Herbert's Henry VIII., pp. 7, 8. Burnet, Hist. Bef., vol. 1, 
part 1, book 2. 

f Ibid. The protest is dated June 27, 1505. 

J This text in Leviticus was cited against the marriage : " If a 
man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing; . . . they 
shall be childless." Lev. 20 : 21. 

§ Herbert, Burnet, and others. B 

|| Her dowry was 200,000 ducats, equivalent to $480,000 in 
American gold. This was doubtless one grand reason why Henry 
VII., the most miserly of kings, was anxious to secure the mar- 
riage. 1f Punchard, vol. 2, p. 39. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



59 



ments might not be resisted ; so a papal dispensa- 
tion ratified and legalized the union.* 

The royal couple lived together during eighteen 
years. In that time Henry, who was passionately 
desirous Of children, lost no less than six in rapid 
succession.'!' But one lived, the "Lady Mary" of 
bloody memory. Some time in 1527 the king also 
saw and became enamoured of Anne Boleyn, one 
of the beauties of his court. J 

Urged equally by love and the death of his chil- 
dren, which he regarded as a providential punish- 
ment upon his unlawful and incestuous marriage,§ 
Henry, in the fall of 1527, demanded a divorce, and 
he dispatched an ambassador to Borne to obtain 
the papal dispensation. 

Queen Catharine was of course bitterly opposed 
to a divorce which would illegitimatize her children, 
and convict her of having lived in adultery eighteen 
years. She poured her griefs into the ear of her 
nephew Charles Y. The emperor naturally sided 
with his aunt. He was then in the full flush of his 
military triumphs on the Continent, and holding 
the pontiff in the hollow of his hand, he forbade the 
issue of a dispensation.! 

Consequently, when Henry's ambassador reach- 
ed the Roman court, he was met by equivocations, 
beguiled by words, put off by promises. Clement 

* Herbert ; Burnet ; Hume ; Froude, etc. 
f Froude, Hist. Eng., vol. 1, pp. 115-118. 
J Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, pp 118-131. Herbert's Henry 
VIII, p. 284. § Froude, vol. 1, p. 115. 

Ij DAubigne, chs. 9-12, passim. 



60 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



VII. dared not comply with the English king's im- 
perious order. 

In the mean time Henry began to chafe. Wol- 
sey sent courier after courier to implore the pope 
to hasten, picturing the anger of the king, the 
spread of heresy, and the imminent danger of los- 
ing the island to the church in case of the aliena- 
tion of the monarch.* 

The pope was between Scylla and Charybdis ; 
on either side his boat would be dashed to pieces. 
But Charles V. was nearer than Henry VEIL ; he 
was also more dreaded. So Clement continued to 
procrastinate. Through five years of chicanery the 
divorce dragged.f 

Then Henry lost patience ; he hurled bitter 
oaths at the pope ; he cursed the college of cardi- 
nals ; he disgraced Wolsey ;$ and taking the divorce 
into his own hands, he had it decreed by a home 
tribunal ;§ then he barricaded Rome out of England 
by statutes. 

The great minister's prediction was verified — 
Britain was lost to the Roman see. 

As for "Wolsey, broken and discrowned, like the 
effete faith whose representative he was, he retired 
from his gorgeous palace into a hovel to die. He 
could only sigh, 

' ' Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness. " 

<* DAubigne, chs. 9-12, passim. 

f D'Aubigne, pp. 301-518, passim. 

J Hume, Froude, Lingard, Cavendish, Life of Wolsey. 

§ Ibid. Herbert, Life, etc., of Henry VIII. 



THE DAWN OF DAY. 



He could only mutter between his sobs, 

"Oh, how wretched 
Is that poor man that hangs on prince's favors ! 
There is, betwixt that smile he would aspire to, 
That sweet aspect of princes, and Iris ruin, 
More pangs and fears than wars or women have 
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, 
Never to hope again." 



62 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTER IY. 

THE TWO DIVORCES. 

It is not necessary in this resume, if we may 
borrow the striking simile of Hooker, to " uncover 
the cup of all those deadly and ugly abominations 
wherewith this papistical J eroboam hath made the 
earth so drunk that it reeled under our feet." We 
may accept Fuller's summary : " Seeing that the 
complaints of the conscientious in all ages against 
the errors in the Eomish church met with no other 
entertainment than frowns and frets, and afterwards 
fire and fagot, it came seasonably into the minds 
of those who steered the English nation to make 
use of that power which God had bestowed upon 
them ; and seeing that they were a national church 
under the civil command of one king, he, by the 
advice and consent of his clergy in convocation 
and the great council in Parliament, resolved to 
reform the church under his inspection from gross 
abuses which had crept into it, leaving it free to 
other churches either to follow his example or to 
continue in their old condition ; and on these terms 
the English Reformation was first advanced."* 

From the downfall of Wolsey to the Act of Su- 
premacy, the Reformation swept on with regular 
and triumphant steps. In 1532, Henry VIII. and 

* Fuller, Church History, vol. 2, p. 50. 



THE TWO DIVOECES. 



63 



Anne Boleyn were married.* In 1533, Parliament 
erased from the statute-book many of the barbar- 
ous laws against Lollarclism ; reiterated former acts 
restraining the payment of ecclesiastical dues to 
Borne ; enacted that church dignities should be con- 
ferred, not by the pope, but by deans and chapters 
or priors and convents, under the license of the king; 
and made provision for the conduct of religious 
matters within the kingdom, without resort to the 
Koman courts.f Besides all this, the power here- 
tofore exercised by the "apostolic chamber" over 
religious houses was transferred to the king.'J: 

But while the law was thus active in severing 
England from the holy see by statute, the press and 
the pulpit were not idle. The press groaned under 
the load of pamphlets daily issued against the papal 
claims. The pulpit proclaimed that the pontiff had 
no authority, ecclesiastical or civil, in England.§ 
Even the dead verbiage of the statutes grew elo- 
quent in the defence of liberty. The press seemed 
animated by the glowing spirit of the Lollards. 
The pulpit appeared to be but an echo of the res- 
urrected soul of "Wickliffe. 

While the Parliament was busy in chattering 
law against Borne, a convocation or ecclesiastical 
assembly was in session ; and here too several 
remarkable events occurred. The clergy, under a 
pressure from the throne, not only acknowledged 

* Herbert, Life of Henry VIII. ; Burnet ; Fronde. 

f Statutes, 25 Henry VIII., ch. 20. % Ibid., ell. 21. 

§ Burnet, vol. 1, p. 130. 



64 HISTOEY OF THE PUKIT'ANS. 



that their convocations might only be assembled 
by the king's writ, but they addressed the monarch 
as the " protector and supreme head of the church 
and clergy of England" — a title which he exacted, 
and which was a little later ratified by an act of 
Parliament ;* and they promised also, in verbo sa- 
cerdotii, that they would never make nor execute 
any canons without the royal assent, t 

It may interest some readers to learn how it was 
that this convocation, composed largely of bitter 
Romanists, came to make such fatal concessions to 
Henry YIIL 

When the king began to weary of the arrogance 
and chicanery of Wolsey, he sought for a pretext to 
decree his downfall. The eager and cunning law- 
yers of the court instantly opened the musty stat- 
ute-book; and pointing out the statutes of Provisors 
and Praemunire, which enacted that no Englishman 
should receive bulls from Rome, or exercise lega-' 
five authority in Britain, they reminded Henry 
that Wolsey had transgressed the law in both these 
respects. The king seized the half-forgotten law, 
and Wolsey fell, smitten by the statutes of Provi- 
sors and Prcemunire.% 

The clergy long refused to recognize the suprem- 
acy of the king. Then Henry once more bethought 
him of his statute-book. He again had recourse to 
the Provisors and Prcemunire. If Wolsey had exer- 

* Burnet, vol. 1, pp. 214, 228. 

t Statutes, 25 Henry VIII., eh. 19. 

\ Burnet, Hist. Ref., vol. 1. 



THE TWO DIVOKCES. 



65 



cised the legative authority, so had the clergy rec- 
ognized the legitimacy of that clearly unlawful pow- 
er. An action would therefore lie against them. 
Henry could put them out of his protection, confis- 
cate their property, and imprison their persons : 
such was the penalty which awaited the infraction 
of the act. This the contumacious clergy under- 
stood ; and fully aware of the unmerciful character 
of the king when his own ends were to be subserved, 
" they were only too happy," says Burnet, " to escape 
the full infliction of this whip of scorpions by com- 
pliance with the royal wishes."* 

In 1534 the Act of Supremacy, from which has 
grown the church of England, was confirmed by 
Parliament ; and this gave the papal authority in 
Britain its legal coup de grace.-f 

In the following year the memorable visitation 
of the monasteries began. These "religious houses," 
swollen with wicked prosperity, gorged with ill-got- 
ten gains, and bloated with license, were suppressed : 
the lesser ones in 1536, contemporaneously with a 
parliamentary decree extinguishing the authority 
of " the bishop of Rome ;" the larger ones in 1539,:|: 
the wealth so gained reverting to the state.§ 

A royal proclamation against holy days soon 
followed. Clerical trickery was uncloaked ; Thomas 

* Burnet, Hist. Kef., vol. 1. We know of no one who has so 
admirably analyzed this page of history as Burnet. 

f Statutes, 26 Henry VIII. , ch. 1, anno 1531. 

t Statutes of the Realm, 27 Henry VIII., chs. 27, 28; Fuller ; 
Burnet. 

§ Froude, vol. 2, ch. 10. Hume. 



66 



HISTOBY OF THE PUBITANS. 



a Becket's slirine was demolished, and the Koman 
play-house began to lose its baby-clothes. 

Then came what has been finely called " the 
Bible era" of the Reformation. In 1537 the first 
royal proclamation in favor of the English Bible 
was issued.* Good men were at the helm of gov- 
ernment. Thomas, lord Cromwell, a sagacious 
statesman and a hearty reformer, became vicar- 
general of England ; Cranmer, archbishop of Can- 
terbury, a prelate of brilliant learning, devout spirit, 
but somewhat vacillating in action, ably and cor- 
dially supported the reform — sometimes took the 
initiative. 

The floodgates of divine truth were now fairly 
opened, and no power, royal, papal, or diabolical, 
was able to breast the gracious waters. t "It was 
wonderful," says Strype, " to see with what joy the 
book of God was received, not only among the learn- 
eder sort, but generally all England over, among 
all the vulgar people ; and with what greediness 
God's word was read, and what resort to places 
where the reading of it was. Everybody that could 
bought the book, or got others to read it to them 
if they could not themselves. Divers elderly peo- 
ple learned to read on purpose ; and even little 
boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the 
holy Scriptures read. "J 

But through all these momentous scenes the 

* Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 2, pp. 324, 325. 
f Punchard, vol. 2, p. 102. 

X Strype, Life of Cranmer, vol. 1, p. 91, Oxford ed., 1840. 



THE TWO DIVOECES. 



67 



court of Borne was not quiet. In 1538 a papal bull 
was fulminated, which outlawed and damned king 
Henry, and which embodied " every prohibitory 
and vindictive clause invented by the most aspir- 
ing of the popes."* 

There was in England a large, active, and schem- 
ing party which was devoted to Rome. At the head 
of this faction stood Sir Thomas More,t a states- 
man of brilliant acquirements, but a heated parti- 
san. It also numbered among its adherents very 
many of the higher nobility ; and below these swarm- 
ed a substratum of monks, who, robbed of their mo- 
nastic nests by the Reformation, bore it an unre- 
lenting hate, and who roamed through the isl- 
and ubiquitous, intriguing, fomenting insurrection, 
and endeavoring to entangle England in foreign 
wars.J 

But the wings of the Romanist party were clip- 
ped; they could no longer soar to hawk at their 
quarry. For a time they were powerless — 
"Wicked but in will, of means bereft." 

All this series of kaleidoscopic changes was the 
result of two divorces : one from a woman, and com- 
paratively insignificant ; the other from a creed, and 
therefore momentous. 

It is an oft-repeated sophism, that Henry VIII. 
was the architect of the English Reformation. Oh, 
no; the corner-stone of that stately edifice was laid 

* Bullarium Roinanurn, vol. 1, p. 704. 

f See D'Aubigne's account of More, Hist. Eef. in England. 

t Nealc, Hist. Puritans, vol. 1, pp. 13, 11. 



68 



HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



by the almighty Master-builder. Other foundation 
can no man lay. " The church of Christ, which was 
from the beginning, is, and continueth unto the 
end." 

Unquestionably human elements, often unfriend- 
ly elements, entered into and helped perfect the 
work. The pride and the wantonness of Henry 
were the occasion of the break with Rome ; but the 
cause lay behind the passion of the kingly puppet. 
Heaven put Henry to this use ; and " it is usual 
with God's wisdom and goodness," says Fuller, "to 
suffer vice to sound the alarm to that fight wherein 
virtue is to have the victory."* 

Still it is true, as D'Aubigne' has reminded us, 
that " the Reformation in England, perhaps to a 
greater extent than that of the Continent, was 
effected by the word of God. Those great individ- 
ualities with which we meet in Germany, in Swit- 
zerland, in France — men like Luther, Zwingle, Cal- 
vin — do not appear in England. What brought 
light into the British isles subsequently to 1517, 
and more markedly after 1526, was the Bible widely 
circulated. The religion of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
a race called more than any other to circulate the 
Scriptures throughout the world, is particularly dis- 
tinguished by its biblical character."'!* 

This Reformation was no easy, gala-day achieve- 
ment. The actors in it were not masqueraders in a 
mimic war. It was born of infinite hard fights, 

* Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 1, p. 51. 

f D'Aubigne, Eef. in Eng., pp. 149, 150. 



THE TWO DIVOKCES. 



69 



when if " Michael and his angels fought the dragon, 
the dragon fought, and his angels," also. 

And this triumph is all the more remarkable 
when it is remembered that it wa,s won against the 
shrewdest master-piece of human wisdom. "The 
experience of twelve hundred eventful years, the 
ingenuity and patient care of forty generations of 
statesmen had improved the Roman polity to such 
perfection that, among the contrivances which have 
been devised for deceiving and controlling mankind, 
it occupies the highest place."* 

It has been well said, that among the wants of 
man may be reckoned an appetite for deception ; a 
desire, inherent in our depraved nature, to bring 
into an agreement the claims of Deity with the 
indulgence of our pet frailties ; a wild impatience 
for the conveniences and splendors of a religious 
structure in which the luxury of delusion may be 
enjoyed. 

This Rome supplied. Ample and complete in- 
deed was the apparatus which she provided for the 
accommodation of all the various passions and pro- 
pensities of mankind. She "had a chamber for 
every natural faculty of the soul, and an occupa- 
tion for every energy of the natural spirit. She 
permitted every extreme of abstemiousness and 
indulgence, of fast and revelry, melancholy ab- 
straction and burning zeal, subtle acuteness and 
popular discourse, world-renunciation and worldly 

* Macauley, Essay on Eanke's History of the Popes. Essays, 
vol. 3. 



70 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



ambition. She embraced the arts, the sciences, the 
stores of ancient learning — adding antiquity and 
misrepresentation of all monuments of better times ; 
and she covered carefully, with a venerable vail, 
that Bible which was able to expose the false min- 
istry of the infinite superstition."* 

The essence of Eomanism is deceit and prose- 
lytism. The Romanist, says Macauley, is required 
to be "inflexible in nothing but in fidelity to the 
church. Their divines are described by some as 
the most rigid, by others as the most indulgent of 
spiritual directors. Both descriptions were cor- 
rect. The devout listened with awe to their high 
and saintly morality. The gay cavalier who had 
run his rival through the body, the frail beauty who 
had forgotten her marriage vow, found in the Ro- 
manist an easy, well-bred man of the world, who 
knew how to make allowance for the little irregu- 
larities of people of fashion. The confessor was 
strict or lax according to the temper of the peni- 
tent. His first object was, to drive no person out 
of the pale of the church. Since there were bad 
people, it was better that they should be bad Ro- 
manists than bad Protestants. If one were so 
unfortunate as to be a bravo, a libertine, or a gam- 
bler, that was no reason for making him a heretic 
too."t 

So subtle and flexible was the Roman rationale. 
It is not possible to combat a creed which accords 

* Irving, Babylon, etc., Foredoomed, p. 238. 
f Macauley, ut antea. 



THE TWO DIVOKCES. 



71 



so well with the natural instincts of the heart with 
any mere human weapons. To say then that 
Henry VIII. overthrew the papacy in England, is 
to utter a self-evident absurdity. To the accom- 
plishment of that, nothing was adequate but " the 
grace of God, powerful to the pulling down of 
strong-holds." 



72 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE Y. 

THE FLOOD AND EBB TIDES OF REFORM. 

The age of Henry VIII. was the fly-leaf between 
the old and the new dispensations. The Reforma- 
tion did not reach its legal majority in the reign of 
the second Tudor. Epochs are not cut short by 
dates. 

It was a transition era. An old faith was unset- 
tled ; a new faith groped half blindly towards the 
dawning light. Each pulpit preached a different 
doctrine, impelled by individual belief or by ca- 
price.-" One chanted the mass, and proclaimed 
stiff popery. Another asserted that " holy water 
was juggled water held that " auricular confes- 
sion, absolution, and penance were neither neces- 
sary nor profitable in the church of God," and 
planted itself on Scripture alone. t Babel seemed 
come again ; all unity of faith seemed lost. 

It was to establish unity in the English church 
that, in 1536, the king convened the first reformed 
assembly.! 

The convocation consisted of two houses : the 
lower, of the clerks and proctors, the deans and 
archdeacons of the several cathedrals and dio- 
ceses ; the upper of the bishops, with the lord- 

* Neale, History of the Puritans, vol. 1, p. 17. 
f Fuller, Ch. History, vol. 2, pp. 71, 74. (List of erroneous 
opinions.) t Neale, ut antea. 



EBB AND FLOW OF KEFOEM. 73 



abbots and priors, or such of them as rated as bar- 
ons in parliament.* Lord Cromwell presided in 
state as the king's vicar-general. t 

The members of this unique assembly were a 
heterogeneous mass, some Romanists, some Prot- 
estants, some neither ; but all were animated by a 
servile wish to do the royal bidding. J 

Almost the first thing they did was to confirm 
Henry's divorce from Anne Boleyn, " the papists 
willingly, the Protestants faintly, but all publicly." 
Fuller informs us that " no particular cause is spec- 
ified in the sentence, still extant in the record ; and 
though the judge and the court seemed abundantly 
satisfied of the reasons for nullifying the marriage, 
yet, concealing the same unto themselves, they 
thought not fit to communicate this treasure unto 
posterity, except they shut their coffers on purpose, 
because there w T as nothing in them. However, after 
ages take the boldness to conceive that the greatest 
guilt of Anne Boleyn was king Henry's better fan- 
cying of another, which made him, the next day after 
her execution, to mourn passionately for her in the 
embraces of a new and beautiful bride, the Lady 
Jane Seymour."§ 

Anne Boleyn wore the purple four years, not so 
long as it took Henry to win her. In that time she 
gave birth to a daughter, who afterwards reigned 
as queen Elizabeth.il Fuller makes this record of 



• Fuller, vol. 1, p. 67. 

t Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 2, p. 69. 

|| Hume ; Lingard ; Froude, etc. 

Puritans. 4 



f Ibid. 
§ Ibid., pp. 68, 69. 



74 HISTOEY OP THE PUBITANS. 



the unhappy lady : " She was a great patroness of 
the Protestants, a protector of the persecuted, the 
preferrer of men of merit — among whom was Hugh 
Latimer — and a bountiful reliever of the poor."* 

After the consummation of this piece of servile 
rascality, the convocation addressed itself to the 
elaboration of a creed. Then the discordant pas- 
sions of the members crystalized them into two 
radically opposed factions, one earnest to stand in 
the old ways, the other eager to achieve a complete 
reformation. 

Latimer had opened the first session with a Latin 
sermon preached from this text : " The children of 
this world are in their generation wiser than the 
children of light." Fuller, with quaint humor, 
thinks that it would be cruel to quote these words 
apropos of the disputants in the convocation^ 

The debates were warm and long continued ; 
they ended, as is the pernicious custom in such 
cases, in a compromise on radical differences. £ Oil 
and water were made to mix. Popery and Protes- 
tantism kissed each other. So they say the Ro- 
mans could roast one half of a boar, and boil the 
other side. The convocation grew an ecclesiastical 
apple, one half pippin, the other half russet. They 
gave birth to a " twilight religion," whose essential 
tenets were these : the Scriptures, and the Apos- 
tles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian creeds — ac- 
cording to which the Bible was to be interpreted— 

% Fuller, p. G8. f Fuller, vol. 2, p. 75. 

% Ibid. ; Nealc ; Newell, etc. 



EBB AND FLOW OF BEFOKM. 



75 



the recognized standards of faith ; the admission of 
the doctrine of justification by faith ; four of the 
seven papal sacraments ignored ; purgatory left 
doubtful ; but auricular confession, transubstantia- 
tion, and the use of images and saints for certain 
specified purposes still retained.* 

These articles gave very general dissatisfaction. 
The reformers thought that the cup was poisoned 
by the popish ingredients ; and the Protestant 
princes of Germany, some months later, deputed 
three learned men to reason with the bishops and 
the king of England on behalf of a further progress 
in the reformation of the church.t 

The Romanists treated the royal articles with 
undisguised contempt. They openly scouted the 
pretensions of Henry to ecclesiastical supremacy ;| 
and the angered monarch had no redress but to 
slake his rage in the blood of the scoffers. Monks 
of the Charter-house and of the Carthusian order 
were executed ; and to crown the holocaust, Fisher 
bishop of Rochester, and the ex-lord chancellor 
Sir Thomas More, were both beheaded within a 
fortnight of each other.§ 

But despite this severity, the emeutes broadened 

* Fuller quotes the articles in extenso, as copied by his own 
hand from the convocation records, as do also Burnet and Collier. 
Neale gives an abridgment of them ; so does Newell. The sum- 
mary given in the text is a faithful transcript of the spirit of the 
articles. 

f Newell, History of the Puritans in England, p. 72. 
{ Neale, vol. 1, pp. 17, 18. 

§ Fronde, Hume, Lingard, Herbert, Life of Henry VIII. 



76 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



into rebellion. One insurrection of twenty thou- 
sand men was choked by a proclamation f but an- 
other in the north of the island Avas only suppressed 
by battle.t 

These commotions made the unstable and un- 
principled monarch weary of pressing the Reforma- 
tion. Frightened by the war-cloud in the north, 
and at heart still attached to the essential tenets 
of Rome, he appointed, on the 5th of May, 1539, a 
committee of the House of Lords to draw up new 
articles of agreement in religion.^ The result was 
what Lingard styles that " severe and barbarous 
statute" of the Six Articles. The first of these 
affirmed transubstantiation ; the second, commun- 
ion in one kind only ; the third, the celibacy of the 
clergy ; the fourth, the observance of celibacy as 
an ordinance of God ; the fifth, the continuance of 
private masses ; the sixth, auricular confession.§ 

Sprinkling with holy water, the invocation of 
saints, images, and most of the other superstitious 
rites and ceremonies of the papal church were re- 
tained ; and it was decreed that the act should be 
read by the clergy once a quarter, while those who 
spoke or wrote against transubstantiation were to 
be burned without any abjuration, and to forfeit 
their real and personal estates to the crown. Those 

* Froude, Hume, Lingard, Herbert, Life of nenry VIII. 
f Ibid. 

X Neale, Newel], Burnet, Fuller. 

§ These are cited in full by Fuller, vol. 2, p. 98 ; by Newell, 
pp. 73, 74 ; by Neale, vol. 2, p. 21, and by other ecclesiastical 
historians. 



EBB AND FLOW OF REPOKM. 77 



who spoke or wrote against any of the other arti- 
cles were to suffer imprisonment during the king's 
pleasure, besides forfeiting their goods and chattels 
to the state, for the first offence ; and on the second, 
they were to suffer as felons. It was also decreed 
that those priests who had married should be con- 
victed of felony, unless they "put asunder" those 
" whom God had joined ;" and it was made penal 
for any conscientious soul to absent himself from 
the confessional.* 

Henry VIII. surrendered to Eome. England 
struck her flag to the Vatican. Romanism shrieked 
with frenzied joy when Parliament "framed this 
mischief by a law." 

"Power and profit," says Puller, " are the things 
which politic princes chiefly desire. King Henry 
had already obtained both by his partial reforma- 
tion : power, by abolishing the pope's usurpation in 
his dominion; profit, by seizing on the lands and 
goods of suppressed monasteries. And thus hav- 
ing served his own turn, his zeal wilfully tired to go 
any further ; and only abolishing such popery as 
was necessary to his design, he severely urged the 
rest on the practice of his subjects. 

" Herein he appeared like to Jehu king of Is- 
rael, who utterly rooted out the foreign idolatry of 
Baal — fetched from the Zidonians, and almost ap- 
propriated to the family of Ahab — but still worship- 
ped the calves in Dan and Bethel, the state idola- 
try of the kingdom ; so our Henry, though banish- 
« Burnet, Hist.. Kef., part 1, pp. 258, 259. 



78 HISTOBY OF THE PUKITANS. 



ing all outlandish superstition of papal dependence, 
still reserved and maintained home-bred popery, . 
prosecuting the refusers to submit thereto."* 

Against the Six Articles Cranmer and Cromwell 
in vain protested ;t and they were ere long sealed in 
the martyred blood of Lambert, a learned and ami- 
able divine who had achieved wide fame as minister 
to the English congregation at Antwerp, but who, 
on returning to Britain, had ventured to tilt against 
transubstantiation4 

Before Lambert's auto da fe the Reformation 
halted. Reformatory movements do not go back- 
wards, but they oscillate. So now in England re- 
ligious progress fluctuated. Henry VIII. had done 
his work ; liberty waited for his death to leave 
room for the fresh young truth to grow. 

In the mean time the king sternly enforced the 
law. Even Cranmer, his chief favorite, was com- 
pelled to send away his wife ; while Latimer and 
Haxton not only resigned their respective sees of 
Worcester and Salisbury, but were both impris- 
oned for inveighing against the statute.§ The pa- 
tient and thoughtful pen of old John Eox has pre- 
served the names of many of the untitled victims of 
the king's " home-bred popery."|| 

England had simply exchanged popes. "Hen- 
ry VIII. was as much the pontiff of Britain as 

* Fuller, Church History, vol. 2, pp. 97, 98. 

f Ibid. ; Newel ; Neale, etc. % Neale, vol. 1, p. 20. 

§ Newell, p. 75. 

|| See his account of the sufferings of Testwood, Firmer, Anne 
Askew, etc. 



EBB AND FLOW OF EEFOBM. 79 



Paul IY. was of Eome ; and popery, under an- 
other head, still triumphed in its most obnoxious 
forms."* 

In 1540 the fall of Cromwell occurred.'}* The 
astute statesman had provoked the ill-will of the 
shuttlecock king by the active share which he had 
taken in the promotion of the royal marriage with 
Anne of Cleves, a match which proved eminently 
unhappy. 

Then Henry fell a complete victim to " the arti- 
fice and abject submission of Gardiner, Bonner, 
and other conforming popish bishops, who, by 
flattering his imperious temper and complying with 
his dictates, prejudiced him against the reformers 
added to which, his majesty's growing infirmities 
made him so peevish and positive, that it was dax- 

* Brook, Mem. of Cartwright, Introduction,, p. 4. 

f Froude, vol. 3, p. 303 ; Burnet ; Fuller, vol. 2, pp. 98-105. 

"There were eight charges in the bill of attainder against 
Cromwell, four of which related to his heretical character. This 
reveals the true ground of the enmity against him. He had risen 
by the force of his genius and capacity for business, from a very 
humble origin, to be the most powerful and influential subject in 
the kingdom. For this he was hated by the old nobility. But 
Cromwell's hatred of popery was undoubtedly his great offence. 
A forged confession and recantation was published after his 
death, as was done in the case of that gallant old Lollard, Lord 
Cobham, who was hanged and burned for his Protestantism a 
century and a quarter before Cromwell's death. The dying 
prayer of the great statesman contradicts the calumny that he 
recanted his faith in his last hours : ' Lord Jesus, merciful Lord, 
Christ Jesus, I see and acknowledge that there is in myself no 
hope of salvation ; but all my confidence, hope, and trust is on 
thy most merciful goodness.'" Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 137, 138, 
Bote. 



80 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



gerous to advise any thing not known to be agree- 
able to bis sovereign will and pleasure."* 

The fag-end of Henry's arbitrary, wayward, and 
contradictory career did not "bring forth works 
meet for repentance." Wrenched by disease, grum- 
bling, and persecuting papists and Protestants 
alike, he hobbled to his grave, dying on the 28th 
of January, 1546. History ranks him " among the 
ill-princes, but not among the worst ;" while it 
writes upon his tomb this acknowledgment, that 
God builded with him better than he knew. 



* Neale, vol. 1, p. 20. 



THE PEOTESTANT INQUISITION. 81 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THE PEOTESTANT INQUISITION. 

" The king is dead; long live the king !" so runs 
the formula of the old English law which proclaims 
with epigrammatic point the immortality of roy- 
alty. That last sad pageant of Henry's rule, his 
burial, was scarce concluded, ere his son and heir 
by poor Jane Seymour, Edward VI., stepped blithely 
into the vacant throne. 

This boy — he was but ten years old when he 
began to reign — is the sphynx of English kings. 
Deeply learned, well versed in politics, precise in 
business, a shrewd observer, a careful critic, and 
yet a baby of ten, is it strange that posterity should 
wonder and laugh incredulously when it looks back 
across three hundred years and sees this royal prod- 
igy?* 

* Edward VI. was born October 12, 1537. He was proclaimed 
king January 31, 1547. Most Protestant historians dwell with 
reverent admiration upon his learning, piety, and talents ; as, for 
instance, Burnet, Fuller, Neale. His teachers, says Strype, were 
"happily chosen, being both truly learned, sober, wise, and all 
favorers of the gospel." Cranmer, his god-father, superintended 
his studies. John Belonair taught him French. Dr. K. Cox, "a 
very reverend divine," instructed him in Christian manners. In 
Greek and Latin he was taught by ' ' that accomplished scholar, 

Sir John Cheke, once public reader of Greek in Cambridge 

Other masters attended him for other tongues, but Cheke did most 
constantly reside with him." Strype, Eccl. Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 
4* 



82 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Henry VIII. left specific directions for the gov- 
ernment of his kingdom during his son's minority ;* 
but these were only partially complied with. The 
burly Tudor could not dictate so imperiously from 
the grave as he had been wont to do from the 
throne. 

The sixteen executors to whom the government 
had been bequeathed appointed one of their num- 
ber, the duke of Somerset, Protector, under cer- 
tain restrictions ; and it became his duty to act in 
loco regis until Edward should attain his legal ma- 
jority.'!' 

The administrators were composed in part of 
papists, in part of Protestants ; but the reformers 
had the ascendency, and they immediately pro- 
ceeded to initiate religious changes. 

Cranmer became the leader of the Reformation.:): 
The statute of the Six Articles was reversed. Many 
who had been forced by it to fly beyond the sea 
were summoned home ; while others of its victims — 
Hooper, Coverdale, Rogers — were preferred to ben- 
efices in the church.§ Before the " open sesame " 
of the new regime, even the jail doors turned on 

13, 16. Mr. Hallam remarks, ' ' I can hardly avoid doubting wheth- 
er Edward VI. 's journal, published in the second volume of Bur- 
net, is altogether his own ; because it is strange that a boy of ten 
years should write with the precise brevity of a man of business. 
Yet it is hard to say how far an intercourse with able men on 
serious subjects may force a plant of such natural vigor. . . . He 
treated his sister Mary harshly about her religion, and had, I sus- 
pect, too much Tudor blood in his veins." Con. Hist., p. 91. 

* Burnet, vol. 2. Fuller, vol. 2. Newell, Hume, Froude. 

f Ibid. \ Stowell, p. 80. § Neale, vol. 1, p. 27. 



THE PROTESTANT INQUISITION. 83 



their rusty hinges ; and Latimer, who had passed 
six weary years in the Tower, regained his lost caste 
and his unshackled lips.* 

The council went still further : it invited learn- 
ed foreign reformers to make England their home.f 
Several responded, among whom were the famous 
Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer.J The first of these 
wa s seated in the chair of divinity at Oxford ; the 
other was preferred to a professorship at Cam- 
bridge.! 

The government then proceeded to remould the 
loose and clumsy ecclesiastical system of Henry 
VIII. It was no part of the programme to intro- 
duce a radical reformation. The design was rather, 
as Burnet informs us, " to carry on the Reformation 
by slow and safe degrees ; not hazarding too much 
at once ;"|| or, as Fuller puts it in his figurative 
style, they intended to imitate " careful mothers 
and nurses who, on condition they can get their 
children to part with knives, are content to let 
them play with rattles. "T 

Instigated by Cranmer, the regents decreed a 
royal visitation, the object of which was to instruct 
the commons in the tenets of the Reformation.** 
This circuit was made by " six of the gravest divines 
and most popular preachers" in England. ft Cran- 

* Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 155, 156. Wilkins, Concilia, 3. 
f Burnet, vol. 3, p. 146. 

X Punchard, ut antea. § Ibid. 

|| Burnet, Hist. Kef., Eeign of Ed. VI. See the general spirit, 
passim. IT Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 4, book 8, sect. 3. 

** Neale, vol. 1, p. 27. It Ibid. 



84 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 

mer prepared twelve liornilies for the enlightenment 
of groping souls ; and these the government direct- 
ed " all parsons, vicars, or curates" to read "every 
Sunday" in their respective churches,* to supply 
the absence of sermons, which the majority of the 
clergy, accustomed only to mumble the Roman for- 
mulas, were unable to compose. t 

Conformit}^ with this act was enjoined by pains 
and penal ties. J Most of the bishops at once suc- 
cumbed ; but two of the stiffest of the Roman clergy, 
Gardiner and Bonner, refused to submit, and they 
were flung into the Fleet prison for contempt. § 

But the visitation was a mere make-shift, intend- 
ed to tide over a shallow spot. Notwithstanding 
the attempts at coerced unity made by Henry VIII., 
pulpit continued to clash against pulpit ; nor were 
the laity less radically divided than the clergy. II 
The regents were anxious to melt these salient dif- 
ferences, which constantly threatened to inaugurate 
civil war, into a grand unity, " a consummation de- 
voutly to be wished," but not sufficiently imperative 
to be entitled to dragoon every other desideratum 
into obedience. 

The golden rule of toleration did not belong to 
what the Scotch call the "humanities" of that age 
of nascent Protestantism. This now well-recognized 
civil canon the twilight government of Edward VI. 
did not accept. The light still winked from the 

« Burnet, vol. 2, p. 54. t Neale, vol. 1, p. 28. 

X Ibid. § Collier ; Strype ; Hallarn, Con. Hist. 

|| Neale, p. 30. 



THE PEOTESTANT INQUISITION. 85 



monastery windows ; and if, groping in the era of 
tapers, Cranmer and his confreres often stumbled 
and fell, perhaps they are more deserving of pity 
than of too harsh censure. 

In the first year of Edward's reign, a plan for 
the security of religious unity was digested ;* and 
this was afterwards submitted to the Parliament 
for ratification. Parliament, anxious only to know 
and to execute the will of the court, readily enacted 
Cranmer's programme into law. 

At one period in English history, Parliament 
stooped to be simply the attorney of the king. It 
was a clumsy scribe, esteeming its only function to 
be to record the will of despots. It would as soon 
have thought of decreeing the jury trial in Timbuc- 
too as of uttering an independent word, initiating a 
policy, or crying veto to the usurpations of a king. 
In a later age, Parliament took a juster view of its 
prerogatives, better understood its august functions, 
and stereotyped brave words into grand acts. 

Still the Parliament just mentioned proved to 
be one of the most memorable in history ; and it 
deserves to be called the iconoclastic Parliament; 
for it broke many idols. It struck down many of 
the oppressive statutes of the past ; repealed the 
cruel enactments of Henry VIII. ; decreed the re- 
moval of statues, crosses, and altars from the church- 
es, the disuse of tapers, holy water, and incense ; 
ordered the abolition of the worship paid the Vir- 
gin and the saints ; left the doctrine of purgatory 

* Burnet, Records, vol. 2, part 2, book 1, No. 7. 



86 



HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



indifferent, though retaining the prayer for depart- 
ed souls ; decreed the discontinuance of auricular 
confession, the denial of the corporeal presence, the 
restoration of the right of marriage to the clergy ; 
and to crown all, instituted a uniform order of 
prayer, and established the reformed liturgy.* 

This was a glorious work, and jubilant Protes- 
tantism of all shades echoes the "well-done" of 
that age by the " Amen " of three centuries. 

" The Book of Common Prayer of the Church 
of England " was not original with the committee 
of bishops and divines who prepared it. It was 
compiled from various local missals, the obnox- 
ious popish features being omitted. f It was first 
published in 1548 ; but it was altered three years 
later, at the suggestion of dissenting foreign divines 
and their English adherents ; when, in its amended 
form, it received the sanction of the Protestant Con- 
vocation.:]: 

The Liturgy, like the Prayer-book, was a form of 
public worship drawn largely from Romish sources 
and protestantized. It was intended to produce 
exact uniformity of doctrine ; but became, from its 
rigidity — no discriminating latitude being left for 
tender consciences — the rock upon which the re- 
formers split.§ 

With the salient features of the Liturgy, revised 

* Statutes of the Kealm, 1 Edward VI., chap. 2. Statutes 2 
and 3 Edward VI., chap. 1. Pari. Hist., vol. 3, pp. 232, 235. Bur- 
net, vol. 2, p. 192. 

t Burnet, vol. 2, p. 192. Neale, vol. 1, p. 31. 

t Newell, p. 82. § Neale, vol. 1, p. 32. 



THE PROTESTANT INQUISITION. 87 



and changed from time to time, we shall become 
acquainted as this history proceeds. 

The acceptance and use of the new service-book 
was enforced by harsh legislation. It was not only 
enacted that the clergy should make use of this, 
and of no other, but that if any parson, vicar, or 
spiritual person should speak in derogation of it, 
he should for the first offence forfeit a year's prof- 
its of one of his preferments, and suffer six months' 
imprisonment ; for the second, lose all his prefer- 
ments, and suffer twelve months' imprisonment ; 
and for the third, suffer imprisonment for life."" 

Substantially the same penalties awaited the lay- 
man who should ridicule the new form of worship, 
menace the clergy for adhering to it, or prevail on 
them to use any other. t 

These enactments established that saddest, most 
illogical of farces, a Protestant Inquisition. It was 
the gospel turning persecutor. Religion attempted 
the role of Simon de Montfort. 

To hoot such absurd legislation is not necessa- 
rily to reject the Liturgy. It would not be proper 
to force the Bible itself into unwilling hands by 
statute. The attempt to do this in England, in a 
certain sense wrecked the Liturgy before it was 
fairly launched. Nothing prejudices like compul- 
sion. Thumb-screws and stocks are the most mis- 
erable of proselyters. This the history of the In- 
quisition proves. The most persuasive of preach- 

* Statutes of .the Realm, vol. 4, pp. 37, 38. 
f Statutes, ut antea. 



88 HISTOKY OF THE PIJKITANS. 



ers is liberty— the ability to accept or reject, as 
reason dictates. This the history of the nineteenth 
century demonstrates. 

A reign of terror was now inaugurated. All who 
ventured to dissent from the governmental ortho- 
doxy were proscribed, outlawed, or burned.* Con- 
scientious men were transmuted into hypocrites by 
forced abjurations ; or else, if they persisted in their 
creed, they were executed as contumacious heretics. 

Among the victims of this unhappy persecution 
history has preserved the name of poor Joan of 
Kent, a maid who " maintained that Christ was not 
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, whose flesh being 
sinful, he could not partake of it; but the Word, 
by the consent of the inward man in the Virgin, 
took flesh of her." These were her words ; a scho- 
lastic subtlety not capable of doing much mischief, 
and far from deserving so severe a punishment. f 

Cranmer himself, the chief instigator of Joan's 
martyrdom,:}: had been by turns a papist, a Luther- 
an, and a Sacramentarian. In every change he 
was guilty of inexcusable severities. His own va- 
riations should have taught him to be more tender 
of the lives of those who rejected the governmental 
dictum.§ 

c Burnet, Fuller, Newell, Neale, etc. 
f Neale, vol. 1, p. 36. 

% Edward was disposed to pardon Joan, but ' ' Cranmer at length 
overruled his objections. The king, as he put his name to the 
warrant, wept, and said to the archbishop, 'If I do wrong, it is in 
submission to your authority ; you shall answer God first. ' " Bur- 
net, vol. 2, p. 112. § Neale, vol. 1, p. 35. 



THE PROTESTANT INQUISITION. 89 



" His actions," says Burnet, " were much cen- 
sured, as being contrary to the clemency of the gos- 
pel ; and they were used by papists, who said that 
it was plain that the reformers were only against 
burning when they were in fear of it themselves."* 

When the woful persecutions of the Marian era 
are pilloried in history, ought the example of king 
Edward's reformatory regime to be forgotten ? The 
princess Mary herself would have been punished 
for non-conformity, had it not been for the active 
interference of Charles Y.f Tumults everywhere oc- 
curred. Insurrection raised its hydra-head. " The 
new Liturgy did not sit well on the minds of the 
country people, who were for going on in their old 
way of wakes, processions, and church ales. "J 

" Come we now," in the words of Fuller, " to the 
saddest difference that ever happened in the church 
of England, if we consider either the time, how long 
it lasted, the eminent persons therein engaged, or 
the doleful effects thereby produced. For now non- 
conformity in the days of king Edward was con- 
ceived ; which afterwards, in the reign of queen 
Mary — but beyond sea, at Frankfort — was born; 
which in the reign of queen Elizabeth was nursed 
and weaned ; which, under king James, grew up a 
tall stripling ; but towards the end of king Charles' 
reign, shot up to the full strength and stature of a 
man, able not only to cope with, but to conquer the 
hierarchy, its adversary."§ 

e Hist. Kef., vol. 2. t Newell, p. 83. 

X Neale, p. 34. § Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. 2, p. 329. 



90 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

CHUKCH AND STATE. 

The reign of Edward VI. is memorable because 
in it was cemented the union between church and 
state. " The Reformation was begun,' 5 says Bur- 
net, " and carried on, not by the major part of the 
bishops and clergy, but by a few selected bishops 
and divines, who, being suppobted by the king's 
authority,* did frame things as they pleased, and 
by their interest at court got them to be enacted in 
Parliament ; and after they had removed such bish- 
ops as opposed them, then they procured the con- 
vocation to submit to what was done."f 

It was in that age the almost universal belief 
that government could as properly dictate in the 
realm of ethics as in civil affairs. Precedents were 
found in the Jewish state and in the Eoman em- 
pire. When the clergy of Edward's day opened 

* Strype says, "The papists cried out against Edward's do- 
ings, as being done in his minority, and done by others, the chief 
men about him. They would ordinarily say, ' Tush, this year will 
not tarry ; 't is but my lord Protector's and my lord of Canterbury's 
doings. The king is but a child, and he knows not of it.' To 
which Latimer would respond, ' I will tell you this, his majesty 
hath more godly wit and understanding, more learning and know- 
ledge at his age, than twenty of his progenitors that I could name 
had at any time of their life.' " Eccl. Memorials, vol. 2, p. 38. 

f Burnet, vol. 2, Preface, p. 11. 



CHUECH AND STATE. 



91 



the code of Justinian, they saw that the first law 
made by Theodosius, when he came to the empire, 
was, that all should everywhere, under severe pains, 
adhere to that faith which was received by Dama- 
sus bishop of Eorae, and by Peter of Alexandria.* 
Why then, queried they, may not the king give 
the like authority to the archbishops of Canterbury 
and York ? They did not doubt the right ; it did 
not even enter into their minds to divorce church 
and state. The ecclesiastical discipline of Europe 
at large was settled on that basis. Eome had al- 
ways meddled with statecraft. The bishops who 
inaugurated the English Reformation thought that, 
in this, Protestantism should enact the role of Eome. 
So deep-rooted was this belief, that even a century 
later the stern ploughshare of civil war could not 
eradicate it. It was left for a blighter epoch and 
another country to explode the fallacy of " church 
and state." 

In the church of England, Christ's vicar was the 
king. Under the Eeformation the ancient ecclesi- 
astical equipments were largely retained. The 
respective dioceses were still coextensive with the 
kingdom.f Cathedrals which had formerly echoed 
to the chanting of the mass, now resounded with 
"the purer worship of the service-book ; and the 
national church, like the papal church, continued 
to be supported by tithes gathered from the Chan- 
nel to the Tweed, i 

* Justinian's Code; cited by Burnet, vol. 2, Preface, p. 11. 
f Fuller ; Burnet ; Strype ; Hallarn, etc. { Ibid. 



92 HISTORY OP THE PURITANS. 



While the Reformation retained, in some meas- 
ure, the paraphernalia of Rome, it parted with the 
essence of papacy. Up to the reign of Edward VI., 
" the public services of the church had been, for the 
most part, said and sung in a language unintelligi- 
ble to ninety -nine hundredths of the people. Even 
the Lord's prayer the poor suppliants had been 
compelled, until recently, to mumble over in Latin, 
not knowing the meaning of one petition which they 
uttered ; and very many of the priests who offici- 
ated at the altars knew scarcely more of what they 
said or sung than the poor people whom they de- 
luded with their ostentatious ceremonies. 

" To gather together the mass-books and prim- 
ers, cull from them the best bits, translate these 
into English, and so place in the hands of the peo- 
ple a book of prayer, administration of the sacra- 
ments, and other rites and ceremonies, which they 
could read and understand, and by means of which 
they could intelligently engage in acts of public 
worship — to do all these things was indeed a great 
and most praiseworthy work. It was to take a long 
and bold step towards reformation. And could the 
reformers have appreciated the true spirit of Chris- 
tianity sufficiently to have left this reformed and 
intelligible service to find friends and to make its 
way in the world without enforcement by penal 
enactments, it would have saved their memory and 
the church of England from many stains, which no 
human hands can now fully remove. 

" The fatal error of the church-and-state reform- 



CHUKCH AND STATE. 



93 



ers was the delusive idea of enforcing absolute uni- 
formity. The very title of the act which established 
the new service-book was, ' An Acte for Uniform- 
ity of Service and Administration throughout the 
Eealme.' The attempt to compel unvarying uni- 
formity, the refusal to grant any liberty to worship 
God otherwise than as the law prescribed — this 
was the great error of the reformers. In this mat- 
ter of exact uniformity, the reformers even outran 
the very papists ; for, previous to the passage of this 
act, there was no absolute uniformity in the Eng- 
lish church, but a variety of forms of prayer and 
communion were tolerated, differing in different 
sections of the country. As the pope permitted 
this latitude, so Henry VIII. seems to have allowed 
the churches to disregard all the popish forms and 
prayers, and to use such others, even in English, 
as they preferred. So at least we infer from what 
Strype says when speaking of the variety which 
existed in England before the act of uniformity, 
that ' those who liked not any of these popish forms 
and Latin prayers, used other English forms, ac- 
cording as their fancies led them.' "* 

The obstinate persistence of the government in 
enforcing uniformity even in non-essential points 
provoked, in the years 1550 and 1551, the initial 
controversy from which grew " many and tall 
branches of mischief." 

Among other things, it had been decided to 
retain the old habits which had been worn by the 

o Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 179-181. 



94 HISTOKY OF THE PTJEITANS. 



Roman clergy in the service of the altar. These 
vestments were disliked by some of the reformers 
as the badges of the old serfdom to Eome; by 
others they were esteemed lightly, because in the 
minds of the papists they symbolized Latin ortho- 
doxy.* 

To this very general feeling John Hooper, a 
divine who was pronounced by king Edward to be 
" of great knowledge and deep judgment both in 
the Scriptures and in profane learning, as also a 
person of ready utterance and of an honest life,' 5 1 
was the first to give public voice. 

Hooper had quitted England in the latter part 
of the reign of Henry VIII. " He was residing at 
Zurich at the time when all Germany was in a flame 
on account of the Interim, which was a form of 
worship contrived to keep up the exterior face of 
popery. Upon this there arose an important ques- 
tion among the Germans concerning the use of in- 
different or non-essential things. It was said, if 
things were indifferent in themselves, they were 
lawful ; and that it was the subject's part to obey 
when commanded. So the old popish rites were 
retained on purpose to draw the people more easily 
back to Romanism. 

" Out of this another question arose : whether 
it was lawful to obey in things indifferent, when it 
was certain that they had a bad tendency, and were 
enjoined with an ill design. To which it was re- 

* Strype, Burnet, Fuller. 

f Edward's Letter to Archbishop Craumer. 



CHTJBCH AND STATE. 



95 



plied, that the designs of legislators were not to be 
inquired into. 

" This created a vast distraction in the country. 
Some conformed to the Interim; but the major part 
were firm in their principles, and were turned out 
of their livings for disobedience. The reformed 
were for shaking off the relics of popery, at the 
hazard of all that was dear to them in this world. 
This was especially the feeling at Zurich, where 
Hooper was ; all were zealous against any compli- 
ance with the use of the old rites. 

" With these principles, and fresh from the heat 
of that controversy, Hooper came over to Eng- 
land, and applied himself to preaching and explain- 
ing the Scriptures to the people. He was in the 
pulpit almost every day in the week, and his ser- 
mons were so popular that all the churches in 
which he preached were crowded. His fame soon 
reached the court, and with Dr. Poguet he was 
appointed to deliver all the Lent sermons. In 
May, 1550, Hooper was appointed bishop of Glou- 
cester ; but he declined because of the form of the 
oath of supremacy, and the vestments. The oath, 
"By God, by the saints, and by the Holy Ghost," 
Hooper thought impious, since God only ought to 
be appealed to in an oath. The young king, con- 
vinced that this objection was just, struck out the 
obnoxious words with his own pen. However, the 
scruple about the vestments was not so easily got- 
ten over. The king and council were disposed to 
dispense with them ; but Ridley and the rest of the 



96 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



bishops, who had worn them, were of another mind, 
saying the thing was indifferent, and therefore the 
law ought to be obeyed."* 

Hooper's objections were substantially these : 
that the vestments and ornaments — the rochet, 
chimere, square cap, and the rest — were mere hu- 
man inventions, having no countenance in Scrip- 
ture, but brought into the church when in its most 
corrupt state, by tradition or custom ; that they 
were not suitable to the simplicity of the Christian 
religion, and were condemned by the apostle as 
" beggarly elements ;" and especially that they had 
been invented chiefly to give effect to the pompous 
and idolatrous celebration of the mass, and were 
so consecrated in the minds of the ignorant that 
they were considered essential to the due celebra- 
tion of religious service. He affirmed his willing- 
ness to wear a decent, simple attire, different from 
the ordinary dress of a layman; but he was not 
willing to sanction the superstitious notions of the 
people, that the peculiar habits of the clergy were 
necessary to the efficacy of religious services, and 
that no priestly act was of any value unless per- 
formed in a priestly dress. f 

Ridley was the main spokesman on the other 
side. He granted that the vestments were "neither 
things to be regarded as necessary to spiritual 
health and salvation, nor yet as if without them 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 39,' 40. 

f The above summary of Hooper's objections is quoted from 
Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 195, 19G. 



CHUECH AND STATE. 



97 



the ministry might not be done but he argued 
" that, in matters of rites and ceremonies, custom 
was a good argument for the continuance of those 
that had been long used."* 

It has been truly said that this argument proved 
too much ; for if the aegis of custom shielded the 
vestments, then why not all the other rites and cere- 
monies — the gloves, the sandals, the mitre, the 
ring, the crosier, which had been so recently abol- 
ished ? 

This debate, seemingly of small importance, but 
which contained the germs of Puritanism, raged 
through two years. At the outset Cranmer was 
inclined to side with Hooper, f as did John Rogers, t 
Bradford,§ an d the larger portion of the reformed 
clergy ;|j but he at length opposed this " puritani- 
cal" move, urged thereto by his determination to 
enforce conformity even in trifles. 

An appeal was taken to the famous continental 
reformers, Bucer and Martyr, then resident in Eng- 
land.1T Both of these substantially agreed with 
Hooper ; but in obedience to authority and to re- 
store peace, they counselled submission. This also 
was the advice of the Genevan doctors, who, grieved 
that so eminent and learned a preacher should be 
silenced, urged him to comply, that he might be the 

* Bradford, Writings, p. 375. f Neale, p. 41. 

% Fuller, Church History, vol. 4, p. 62. 
§ Bradford, Writings, p. 22. 

|| Brook, Lives of the Puritans, Introduction, vol., 1, p. 9. 
IT Chapter 6, p. 81. 



98 



HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



more capable, by his authority and influence in the 
church, of inaugurating a reformation.* 

Hooper was long unwilling to obey, and his 
stiffness provoked his persecution. He was si- 
lenced, then committed to the custody of Cranmer, 
and finally thrown into Fleet prison, where, to the 
scandal of the Reformation, he lay for several 
months.t 

At length the king determined to dispense with 
the vestments in Hooper's case, and his consecra- 
tion was ordered to proceed. But so great was the 
reluctance of the bench of bishops to acknowledge 
themselves foiled, that the business dragged through 
six months after the royal order. Nor was it then 
settled without a compromise ; Hooper consenting 
to wear the vestments at the ceremony of his con- 
secration, on condition that he should be permitted 
to dispense with them ever after .J 

In after years both Ridley and Cranmer came 
to agree cordially with Hooper's estimate of the 
vestments ; for Fox records that when in Mary's 
reign the papists, in their ceremony of Ridley's 
degradation from the priesthood, desired him to 
array himself in these very vestments, he refused ; 
nor would he even put on the surplice, which they 
were themselves obliged to do, " with all the trin- 
kets pertaining to the mass. And as they put it on, 
Ridley did vehemently inveigh against the Romish 
bishop, and all that foolish apparel, calling the pope 

« Neale, vol. 1, p. 41. f Ibid., p. 42. 

} Burnet, vol. 2, p. 218. 



CHUECH AND STATE. 



99 



Antichrist, and the habit foolish and abominable, 
yea, too formal for a vice in a play, too ridiculous 
for a buffoon in a comedy."* 

So when Bonner stripped -off the vestments 
which had been placed on Cranmer, in order to 
degrade him preparatory to his martyrdom, he re- 
plied, " All this neecleth not ; I had myself done 
with this gear long ago."f 

The "vestment controversy" was quieted in 
1551. In that same year the articles which com- 
posed the doctrine of the English church were care- 
fully revised ;X an d- some things which had been 
incorporated in the original draft, in compliance 
with common prejudice, but against the convictions 
of the reformers, were now dashed out.§ In 1552 
the convocation assented to the " Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles" which form the basis of Episcopacy.il Under 
Elizabeth some of the articles were put into more 
general words,!" but no essential alterations were 
made, and the service-book stands now almost pre- 
cisely as it stood after Cranmer and Eicllej 7 had 
new-modelled it in the middle of the sixteenth 
century.** 

6 Fox. Acts, etc., vol. 3, p. 427. 

f Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 3, p. 558. } Burnet, vol. 2, p. 218. 

§ Lathbury says, "There were various changes in the arrange- 
ment of the book ; several rubrics were altered or omitted, and 
some were added ; certain ornaments were enjoined in the first 
book which were dispensed with in the second ; 1 no copes or 
other vestures were required, but the surplice only.'" Lathbury. 
pp. 32, 35. || Burnet, Records, No. 55. 

IT Ibid., Hist. Eef. 

<*• Punchard, vol. 2, p. 214. Lathbury. 



100 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



One of the marked features of Edward's reign 
was the honor paid to preaching. " Six eminent 
preachers were chosen out," says Burnet, "to be 
the king's preachers in ordinary; two of these were 
| to be always in attendance at court ; four were to 
be sent over England to instruct the people. Their 
names were Bill, Harley, Pern, Grindal, Bradford, 
and John Knox, who afterwards kindled the gos- 
pel light in the Scottish horizon. These, it seems, 
were accounted the most zealous and the readiest 
preachers of that time, and they were thus dis- 
patched as itinerants, to supply the defects of the 
greater part of the clergy, who were generally very 
faulty."* 

Since the year 1526 an organized club had ex- 
isted in London, called, " The Association of Chris- 
tian Brothers," whose object was the circulation of 
Bibles and religious books. "It was composed," 
says Eroude, " of poor men, chiefly artisans, trades- 
men, and a few, a very few, of the clergy ; but it 
was carefully organized, was provided with moder- 
ate funds, which were regularly audited ; and its 
paid agents went up and down the country, carry- 
ing Testaments and tracts with them, and enrolling 
in the order all who dared to risk their lives in such 
a cause."f 

In its early years, before Henry VIII. broke 
with the papacy, the "Association" had a hard 
struggle for life. Its agents " were hounded from 

« Burnet, vol. 2, p. 225. 

f Fronde, History of England, vol. 2, p. 26. 



CHUECH AND STATE. 



101 



one place to another, compelled to disguise them- 
selves, to hide their heads in friendly habitations 
or in the forests, to travel by night, and to resort 
to various stratagems by day to escape the bish- 
op's hands ; and with all their care they were not 
always able to elude the diligence and activity of 
their persecutors."* 

The pious pen of Fox has traced in quaint old 
English the romantic stories of several of these 
pioneer colporteurs ; and in thrilling interest and 
humble Christian heroism they glow and throb. t 

In the days of Edward VI. the "Association" 
undoubtedly found it pleasanter sailing ; and since 
their opportunities were broader, their work was 
probably grander. This was a Bible society and a 
Tract society ; and since it was the first in English 
history, it deserves grateful remembrance. Could 
the old "Association" step from its grave three 
centuries deep, and shake hands with its mammoth 
descendants on either continent, it might be con- 
tent to return once more to the tomb with the 
prayer of Simeon upon its lips, " Now, Lord, lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes 
have seen the beginning of thy salvation." 

But dark days were coming on apace. The 
"black cloud no bigger than a man's hand" had 
already risen above the horizon. The fragile and 
devout young king, forced into unnatural matu- 
rity, broke and fell. His reign had been exceed- 

• Punchard, vol. 2, p. 152. 

f Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 2, pp. 438, 441. 



102 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 

ingly turbulent. His very counsellors had been 
proved to be traitors ; his own uncles died under 
the hatchet of the headsman. 

In July, 1553, Edward VI. expired. A satyr 
succeeded to Hyperion. With the removal of this 
royal breakwater, a vile flood of popery swept over 
England, while above the surging tempest wailed 
the cry of martyrs, and shrieked the joyous laugh- 
ter of demoniacs. 



THE MAKIAN EPOCH. 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MAKIAN EPOCH. 

The death of Edward VI. plunged England into 
chaos. " Brawls festering to rebellion" had scarred 
every month of his short reign. Those evils which 
history, speaking through a dozen familiar French 
instances and through half as many English, pro-** 
claims inseparable from the government of royal 
minors, were ubiquitous and rampant. The old 
chroniclers draw woful pictures of the men and 
manners of that epoch. 

Strype makes this record : " How good soever 
Edward was, and what care soever was taken for 
the bringing in the knowledge of the gospel and 
restoring Christ's true religion, the manners of men 
were very naught, especially of a great sort of them. 
Among the grandees, and among the lesser noble- 
men, many were insatiably covetous. The truth of 
this appears not only in their grasping at the church 
lands, rents, and plate, but in their raising the rents 
on tenants, inclosing commons which had been for 
generations open pasturage for poor men's cattle, 
perverting of justice by intimidation or bribery, and 
by hoarding up all the gold they could get. To this 
pass had covetousness brought the nation, that ev- 
ery man scraped and. pillaged from the other ; every 
man would seek another's blood ; every man en- 



104 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



croached upon his neighbor. Covetousness cut 
away the large wings of charity, and plucked all to 
herself. She had clutched all the old gold in Eng- 
land, and much of the new."* Crime went brazen 
and unpunished ; and " above all other vices, the 
outrageous seas of adultery burst in, and over- 
whelmed all the world. "f 

But " below this lowest deep, a lower deep still 
yawned." Into the "swept and garnished cham- 
ber" of the Reformation Satan came again, "with 
-^seven other devils worse than himself." 

Henry VIII. had fixed it by his will, and had 
it enacted by Parliament,^ that, in case of the 
death of prince Edward without issue, his daughter 
by Catharine of Aragon, the princess Mary, should 
succeed to the throne. Should both these die with- 
out issue, the sceptre was to be handed to his daugh- 
ter by Jane Seymour, the princess Elizabeth.§ 

Henry had previously illegitimatized both Mary 
and Elizabeth by formal statute ;|| but his eventual 
decision in their favor was in exact accordance with 
the capricious character of the headstrong volup- 
tuary. 

In point of law, Mary's title to the throne was 
clean. Nevertheless her right was disputed. She 
was an open and bitter papist. The reformers 
feared that infant Protestantism, under such a 
governess, would be strangled in its cradle. It 



* Strype, Eccl. Mems., vol. 2, pp. 131-137. 

i Statutes, 35 Henry VIII. 

|| Hume, Reign of Henry VIII. 



f Ibid. 
§ Ibid. 



THE MARIAN EPOCH. 



105 



came now to be seen that an absolute supremacy 
over the consciences of men, lodged in a single per- 
son, might be prejudicial as well as beneficial to the 
gospel tenets.* 

Edward, influenced by fear for menaced reform, 
and worked on by the ambition of Northumberland, 
his chief counsellor, was won, while resting under 
broken health, to sign a will settling the crown upon 
Lady Jane Grey, next in blood after the tabooed 
princesses, and a woman of rare purity, of singular 
genius, of profound scholarship, and a zealous ad- 
herent of the Keformation.f 

To this unlawful testament — for the king was a 
minor, and therefore incapable of making a legal 
will — the royal council set their hands. Then, on 
Edward's death, the treason touched its climax in 
the coronation of Lady Jane Grey 4 

A variety of circumstances united to defeat the 
conspiracy. The young queen's relatives were un- 
popular, and this made the people either coldly indif- 
ferent or actively hostile to the new regime.^ Then 
the usurpation was so palpable, that even the most 
zealous of the reformers were forced to protest. 
Hooper openly proclaimed Mary to be the rightful 
heir.H Cranmer only half-heartedly opposed her 
claims.! It is impossible to rally the Anglo-Saxon 
race to the defence of a policy which they perceive 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 50. f Ibid., Fuller, Burnet, etc. 

X Froude, Hume, Lingard, etc. 

§ Burnet, vol. 2, pp. 456-458 ; Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 3, pp. 11-16. 
|| Neale, vol. 1, p. 53. H Punchard, vol. 2, p. 272 

5* 



106 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



to be clearly in defiance of their fundamental pre- 
cepts. There is more terror to an Englishman in 
the writ of a constable than in a thousand bayonets. 
The Anglo-Saxon is wedded to the forms of law ; 
often so blindly enamoured of mere forms, that he 
has no eyes to see substantial law in any justice 
which is outside of the statute. 'T is the secret of 
Saxon progress — liberty regulated by law. This 
was why the " great rebellion " in the next century 
was only possible because the thinkers of Great 
Britain, Pym, Hampden, and the rest, had out- 
grown the monarchy. No war-cry ever stirred a 
generous people which had not in it much of truth 
and right. 

The nascent government of Lady Jane Grey was 
seen to be the juggle of Northumberland; so it 
failed. 

After considerable manoeuvring, Mary, cordial- 
ly supported by the Eomanist element and reluc- 
tantly acquiesced in by the conscientious reformers, 
was recognized by the royal council, by the citizens 
of London, by England at large ; and four weeks 
after the decease of her brother, without spilling a 
drop of blood, she was firmly seated on the throne, 
with Northumberland's shattered cabal beneath her 
feet* 

Thus the reddest, dreariest reign in English his- 
tory began with a bloodless triumph. The Vatican 
bloodlessly subdued an emeute ; then smeared the 
island with martyr gore in profound peace. 

* Hume ; Lingard ; Neale, vol. 1, p. 52. 



THE MABIAN EPOCH. 



107 



"No faith is to be kept with heretics," says 
Rome. Mary hugged that ugly canon to her cruel 
heart, and set about illustrating it. Her bigotry 
had four phases. 

When she skulked in Suffolk, a fugitive half- 
hopeless of the crown, she appealed to the yeomen 
of that Protestant county for support, assuring them 
that religion should be left by her, if she obtained 
her right, upon king Edward's basis.* It was this 
positive asseveration that won the too credulous Suf- 
folkers to rally to her standard. History affirms 
that it was through their aid that Mary was event- 
ually placed upon the throne. f 

Her first step towards empire was taken on a lie ; 
for a little later, after her acknowledgment, she not 
only released Bonner, Gardiner, and the rest of the 
popish bishops from the Tower, but she declared in 
open council that, " though her own mind was set- 
tled in matters of religion, yet she was resolved not 
to compel others, save by the preaching of the word"% 
thus insinuating that the Roman creed was to be 
restored, but not by compulsion. 

Mary's bigotry was of the nature of an intermit- 
tent fever ; for nine days' further reflection con- 
vinced her that she had not gone far enough. Ac- 
cordingly she published an inhibition forbidding all 
preaching without special license. In this docu- 
ment she declared herself to be of " that religion 



* Collier, vol. 6, p. 6. Fox, Acts, vol. 3, p. 12. Burnet, vol. 
2, p. 475. f Ibid, 

i Burnet, vol. 2, p. 490 ; Fox ; Collier. 



108 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



which she had professed from her infancy ;" yet 
affirmed that " she did not compel any of her sub- 
jects to it till public order should be taken on it."* 

The inhibition was the first puff of the approach- 
ing whirlwind. Ere long the full storm burst. The 
Protestant pulpits were shackled ; and when a del- 
egation of Suffolk men waited upon her majesty, and 
presumed to remind her of her engagement not to 
change the basis of the national faith, " the queen 
checked them for their insolence*; and one of their 
number chancing to mention her promise, he was 
pilloried for three da} T s and had his ears cut off, for 
defamation. "t 

Gardiner and Bonner were restored to their re- 
cusant bishoprics. Hooper, Latimer, Rogers, Tay- 
lor, and a host of less distinguished worthies, were 
bastiled.X Peter Martyr, John a Lasco, and the for- 
eign Protestants were commanded to quit inhospi- 
table Britain ;§ and so fierce grew the papist tem- 
per of the government, that a swarm of English re- 
formers accompanied them, self-exiled, into foreign 
parts. || 

" Eight weeks and upwards passed," says Fuller, 
"between the proclaiming of Mary queen and the 
Parliament by her assembled ; during which time 
two religions were together set on foot, Protestant- 
ism and Popery ; the former hoping to be contin- 

* Collier, vol. 6, p. 12 ; Neale, Pmichard, Lathbury, Fuller, 
f Neale, vol. 1, pp. 52, 53. \ Ibid. 

§ Burnet, vol. 2, p. 493. 

|| Fox, Acts, vol. 3, p. 13. Fuller, vol. 2, p. 379. 



THE MAEIAN EPOCH. 



109 



ued, the latter laboring to be restored. And as the 
Jews' children, after the captivity, spoke a middle 
language betwixt Hebron and Ashclod,* so, during 
the aforesaid interim, the churches of England had 
a mongrel celebration of their divine services, be- 
twixt reformation and superstition."f 

Images were set up in various places ; and the 
Latin ritual, though against the siill unrepealed 
laws, was openly used.J In August, 1553, Gardiner 
was commissioned " to license such as lie thought 
meet to preach God's word."§ This insured the 
exclusion of the reformed clergy. 

In October, 1553, Mary was crowned by Gardi- 
ner, now become keeper of the great seal. The 
new lord-chancellor was assisted by ten other bish- 
ops, all in their mitres, caps, and croziers ; and 
the ceremony was conducted with all the pomp of 
the Roman ritual. || 

From this time Gardiner became the chief of the 
reaction ; he was to Mary what Cranmer had been 
to Edward. 

A few days after the coronation, Parliament met. 
This Parliament outdid in servile meanness its base 
fellows of the reign of Henry VIII. It was packed 
by new members, elected by bribery and menace ;1T 
and the old members, yearning for " the flesh-pots 
of Egypt," were soon dragooned into servility. The 

* Neh. 12 :24. t Fuller, Ch. Hist,, vol. 2, p. 375. 

% Punchard, vol. 2, p. 277. 

§ Burnet, vol. 2, p. 493. Fox, vol. 3, p. 12. 

|| Lingard, Fronde, Neale. IT Neale, vol. 1, p. 51. 



110 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



lackey Parliament commenced its work by affirming 
the lawfulness of Henry's marriage with Catharine 
of Aragon and Mary's legitimacy. It then proceed- 
ed to repeal all the religious enactments of the reign 
of Henry VIII. ; to decree that " there should be 
no other form of divine service than that which was 
used in the last year of Henry VIII.," which was a 
resurrection of* the " Six Articles to fulminate 
severe penalties against such as should deface stat- 
ues, abuse the sacrament, or break down crucifixes, 
altars, and crosses ; and to make it penal " for any 
number above twelve to assemble for the purpose 
of altering the established creed ;"f a statute which 
made the punishment of dissenters easy and legal. 

As was the custom in those days, a convocation 
of the clergy sat with the Parliament ; and this like- 
wise was packed with the creatures of the court.J 
Care had been taken to exclude the Protestant 
divines ; nevertheless, when Bonner, who presid- 
ed, proposed that all subscribe to the dogma of 
transubstantiation, four members stoutly dissented, 
and debated the question through three days with 
such vigor and eloquence that the blustering prolo- 
cutor was obliged to cut short the disputation with 
the acknowledgment, " You have the ivord, but we 
have the sword "§ 

It is not necessary to recite minutely the his- 
tory of the various civil and ecclesiastical acts which, 



* Chap. 5, p. 74. 

t Statutes of the Kealm, 1 Queen Mary. 

{ Neale, vol. 1, p. 51. § Ibid., p. 55. 



THE MARIAN EPOCH. 



Ill 



in the reign of Mary, reconciled England to Rome. 
Suffice it to say that subsequent Parliaments, se- 
duced by Spanish gold, sanctioned the queen's mar- 
riage with Philip II. of Spain ;* confirmed Mary's 
resignation of her title of supreme head of the 
church to the pope ; repealed all acts done since 
the twentieth year of the reign of Henry VIII. 
against the pontiff and his supremacy ; sued on 
bended knees for the papal absolution, which was 
granted by cardinal Pole, the pontifical legate ; and 
revived the barbarous statutes of the second Rich- 
ard and the fourth and fifth Henries for the execu- 
tion of heretics by fire.f 

The dance of death now began. A point d'appui 
was gained ; and those twin jackals of Rome, Gar- 
diner and Bonner, commenced the hunt. Bonner 
was an ideal Thug ; he was the hero of the black- 
guardism of his time. Gardiner was a keener, more 
polished knave. " He is to be traced like a fox," 
said bishop Lloyd ; " and like the Hebrew, he must 
be read backward.";): 

Lady Jane Grey and the other actors in the 
unhappy drama of the usurpation were executed in 
1554.§ Sir Thomas Wyat, a Kentish knight who 
had taken arms fo defeat the Spanish match, as- 
cended the scaffold in that same year.|| And now 
that these political victims were in their graves, the 

* Statutes of the Bealm, 2 Queen Mary. 

t Ibid., 3 Queen Mary. See Burnet, Records, vol. 2. 

% Cited in Punchard, vol. 2, p. 208. 

§ Hume, Reign of Mary, year 1554. || Ibid. 



112 HISTOEY OE THE PUKITANS. 



government, maddened by this taste of blood, de- 
termined to deluge heresy in gore. 

A Court of Inquisition was set up.* A bureau 
of spies was formed. t England was put under sur- 
veillance. Letters were written to Lord North and 
others, enjoining them " to put to the torture such 
obstinate persons as would not abjure." J 

Thus it was that practised Rome dwarfed the 
clumsy and illogical persecution of the preceding- 
Protestant regime. The Reformation stooped to 
kindle autos da fe with awkward, ill-dissembled ter- 
ror ; Rome did it with the graceful nonchalance of 
an adept. 

In order to serve the twofold purpose of ren- 
dering them ridiculous and entrapping .them in 
their own words, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer 
were " baited and abused at Oxford, under pretence 
of debating the sacramental question. They were 
ordered to appear separately each day before the 
gathered champions of popery. No conference with 
each other was allowed ; but alone, with only such 
preparation as could be made within their prison 
walls, each was bidden to dispute on themes drawn 
up by their subtle enemies. "§ A pimp named Wes- 
ton, the congenial chaplain of Bonner, was procu- 
rator of this tumultuous assembly ; and Fox tells us 
that the drunken bloat sat with "his tippling-cup 
at his elbow all the time of the disputation."! 



* Hume, vol. 2, p. 697. 

t Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 287, 288. 

|| Fox, vol. 8, p. 70. 



f Ibid. 
§ Ibid. 



THE MARIAN EPOCH. 



113 



It was no part of the design to secure a fair de- 
bate ; accordingly these eminent men were hooted 
and pelted and insulted ad libitum by the vulgar 
crowd of Eoman clergy. " There was great disor- 
der, perpetual shoutings, tauntings, and reproach- 
es," says Ridley in his account of the pitiable farce, 
" so that it looked like a stage rather than a school 
of divines.""* 

Yet despite the disadvantage under which they 
labored, the reformers " obliged the Romanists to 
avow that, according to their doctrine, Christ had, 
in his last supper, held himself in his hand, and 
swallowed and eaten himself, "t 

" Cranmer and Ridley were so hissed and de- 
rided, Latimer was so borne down by noise and 
clamor," that they all refused to disj^ute again. 
This gave the papists the desired opportunity; 
they declared the champions of the Reformation - 
to be vanquished, and called upon them to recant. 
This of course all three refused to do. They were 
remanded to prison, and bidden to prepare for „ 
death.J 

In the following year, 1555, the government . 
lighted an auto da fe. Hooper, Rogers, and Card- 
maker, who had lain in prison for eigh teen months 
without law, were taken out to be burned. 

Rogers was the first martyr in the Marian death- 
dance. On the morning of the fourth of February 
he was ordered to be burned at Smithfield, an old 

* Burnet, vol. 2, p. 562. f Hume, vol. 2, p. 685. 

X Neale, vol. 1, pp. 56, 57. 



114 HISTOKY OF THE PUBITANS. 



suburb of Loudon, and famous since the days of 
Wickliffe as the ghastly rendezvous of the fire gobl- 
ins. The very memory of this quaint old suburb 
was long a terror. For a hundred years the Lollard 
had heard the word " Smithfleld" only to shudder. 
Now the reformers listened to it, and felt their very 
flesh crawl. Smithfleld was the torture-spot of Brit- 
ain. It was as horrible to the island as the fright- 
ful prison of the "Bridge of Sighs" was to mediae- 
val Venice. It was the fiery grave of " heresy." 

It was to this spot that old John Rogers was led 
to die. 

That morning crowds might have, been seen 
gathering to gaze on a spectacle with which many 
had become sadly familiar. In an open space, in 
the midst of an old inclosure then devoted to the 
work of murder, stood the cruel pile, amply sup- 
plied with fagots, surrounded by barriers, and by 
olficers armed to keep back the surging populace. 

The tenements in a street then called Long- 
■Jane, built on both sides for "brokers and tipplers," 
yielded their contribution of thoughtless and pro- 
fane idlers. Grave and more respectable citizens 
were wending their way through old Giltspur-street 
and other avenues, while from the windows of the 
fair inns and other comely buildings which adorned 
with their picturesque architecture the western side 
of ancient Smithfleld, many a face looked out upon 
the dense masses in front of the church of Barthol- 
omew Priory, whose tottering wooden steeple still 
rose to heaven, the memorial of a monastic house 



THE MAEIAN EPOCH. 



115 



which, before the dissolution of abbeys in the time of 
Henry VIII., had stood there in its pomp and pride, 
one of the noblest architectural ornaments of Lon- 
don. 

Suddenly there was a stir ; some officers pressed 
through the throng, and, close to the stake, repeated 
a proclamation which had been already announced 
by placards on the city walls, near the archway of 
frowning Newgate prison, forbidding any one, under 
pain of imprisonment, to speak a word to the forth- 
coming martyr. 

A band of serious persons yonder, standing 
close together, listened to these words with deep 
emotion, as men who had come to sympathize with 
the holy sufferer, and who were resolved that the 
expression of their sentiments by glance and coun- 
tenance at least should not be enchained by the 
merciless edict. 

Another stir announced the approach of the vic- 
tim. A deep hush fell upon the multitude ; while 
clear, serene, almost joyous, a sweet voice was heard 
reciting the fifty-first psalm : " Have mercy upon 
me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness : ac- 
cording unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly 
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin 
is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I 
sinned, and done this evil in thy sight ; that thou 
mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be 
clear when thou judgest. Make me to hear joy 



116 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



and gladness ; that the bones which thou hast bro- 
ken may rejoice. Create in me a clean heart, O 
God ; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me 
not away from thy jDresence ; and take not thy Holy 
Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy sal- 
vation ; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then 
will I teach transgressors thy ways ; and sinners 
shall be converted unto thee. O Lord, open thou 
my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion : build thou 
the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased 
with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offer- 
ing and whole burnt-offering." 

As these striking words resounded over Smith- 
field-square, the solemn stillness grew threefold 
more silent, while with intense interest all eyes 
were fixed upon the placid martyr. 

He was quickly bound to the fatal stake ; and 
just before the fagots were kindled, he was urged 
to recant, bidden to remember his wife and ten 
children, left wholly unprovided for, and promised 
a pardon as the reward of apostasy. John Rogers, 
for it was he, was firm. " God will care for my 
children," said he. The flames were then started. 
Higher, higher they leaped and laughed and crack- 
led ; while from the centre of the livid horror Rog- 
ers continued to exhort and " wash his hands in the 
fire," till God ended all, and took him to himself." 

The impression was deep and lasting. Men 
heaved a sigh ; and as they turned from the scene 
Burnet, Hist. Kef., vol. 2, pp. 385, 386; Fuller, Fox, etc. 



THE MAEIAN EPOCH. 



117 



in Smithfield, they mused on it in their heart of 
hearts. Often had the praise of heroism been there 
bestowed on some proud knight as he bore his lance 
in tilt and tournay, while his name had been in- 
scribed with honor in the rolls of chivalry. But 
the praise of an infinitely nobler heroism belonged 
to this Christian martyr. His name was embla- 
zoned on no herald's roll ; but it was written in the 
book of God's remembrance : and he " shall be 
mine, saith the Lord, in the day that I make up 
my jewels."* 

Five days after the martyrdom of Rogers, Hoop- 
er was burned at Gloucester, in his old bishopric.t 
He was not suffered to address the people ; but no 
brutal dictum could prevent his addressing God. 
This he did with great fervor. When the flames 
were kindled, the wood was found to be green, so 
that the victim was " nigh three quarters of an hour 
in burning to death. "% His legs and thighs were 
roasted, and one of his hands dropped off before he 
expired.§ But no racking pain could shake his 
serene trust ; his last words were, " Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit."! 

Some months later John Bradford, one of the 
most lovable and beautiful characters in ecclesias- 
tical history, of whom it is said that his prison let- 
ters were grander even than his sermons,! ascend- 

* S tough ton, Heroes of Puritan Times, pp. 17-20. 
f Burnet, vol. 2, p. 386. % Ibid. 

§ Ibid. Neale, vol. 1, p. 69. || Ibid. 

IT Fox, Acts, etc., vol. 3, pp. 232-300. Pox's account of Brad- 
ford is singularly full and affectionate. 



113 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



ed into heaven in a chariot of fire. "When he came 
to the stake at Smithfield, says Burnet, " Bradford 
fell down and prayed. Then he kissed the stake, 
and likewise took a fagot in his hand and kissed 
that, expressing thereby the joy he had in his suf- 
ferings ; and he cried, " Oh, England, repent, re- 
pent ; beware of idolatry and false antichrists!" 
But the sheriff hindering him from speaking any 
more, he embraced a fellow-sufferer, and prayed 
him to be of good cheer, for they should sup with 
Christ that night. His last words were, 'Strait is 
the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth into 
eternal life, and few there be that find it.' "* 

From smoking Smithfield the autos cla fe broad- 
en over England. In the months of June and July 
of this same black year of 1555, " eight men -and one 
woman," says Neale, " were burned in Kent ; and 
in the months of August and September, twenty-five 
more suffered in Suffolk, Essex, and Surry. In Oc- 
tober, Ridley and Latimer were martyred at one 
stake in Oxford. Latimer died presently ; but Rid- 
ley was a long time in exquisite torments, his lower 
limbs being consumed before the flames reached 
his body. His last words to Latimer were, " Be of 
good heart, brother ; for God will either assuage the 
fury of the flame, or enable us to abide it." And 
Latimer responded with characteristic vigor, " Be of 
good comfort ; for we shall this day light such a 
candle in England as, I trust, by God's grace shall 
never be put out."t 

* Burnet, vol. 2, pp. 401, 402. f Neale, vol. 1, p. 62. 



THE MAE IAN EPOCH. 



119 



It has been said that on this very same day 
Gardiner, the chief persecutor, was struck with sud- 
den illness, which held him in great agony through 
thirty days, when he expired.* " He would not sit 
down to dinner till he had received news from Ox- 
ford of the burning of Latimer and Ridley, which 
came not till four in the afternoon ; and while at 
dinner, he was seized with the distemper which 
ended his life."t 

Burnet writes this eulogy upon Latimer and 
Eidley : " The one, for his piety, learning, and solid 
judgment, was held the ablest man of all that ad- 
vanced the Eeformation ; and the other, for the plain 
simplicity of his life, was esteemed the model of a 
truly primitive bishop and Christian.''^ 

In March, 1556, Crammer expiated his cruel 
abuse of power when he controlled the destiny 
of England, by meeting himself that martyrdom 
which he had awarded to others. Petty bickerings 
about the succession to his see of Canterbury had 
preserved his life thus far. Gardiner and Pole 
both desired it ;§ now, since the death of Gardiner, 
every moment lost was an opportunity for misfor- 
tune. Accordingly it was decided to burn the bro- 
ken and imprisoned ecclesiastic.!! By much persua- 
sion, and hoping thus to save his life, Cranmer 
had signed a paper abjuring his belief. " This was 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 62. 

f Ibid. Other writers deny this version of Gardiner's death ; 
but Neale's account is sustained by Burnet, vol. 2. pp. 409, 410 
X Burnet, vol. 2, pp. 408, 409. 

§ Ibid., pp. 418-425. || Xeale, vol. 1, p. 62. 



120 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



quickly published to the world, with great triumph 
among the papists and exceeding grief to the re- 
formers. But the unmerciful queen was still re- 
solved to have his life. Accordingly she sent down 
a writ for his execution. She could never forgive 
him for the share he had taken in her mother's 
divorce,* and in driving the Pope's authority out of 
England. Cranmer, suspecting this design before 
the warrant came down, prepared a true confession 
of his faith, which he carried in his bosom to St. 
Mary's church on the day of his martyrdom. 

" Here he was raised on an eminence, that he 
might be seen by the people while he listened to 
his own funeral sermon. Never was there a more 
melancholy spectacle ; an archbishop, once the sec- 
ond man in the kingdom, now clothed in rags, and 
a gazing-stock to the vulgar multitude. 

" Cole, the Romanist preacher, magnified Cran- 
mer's recent conversion as the immediate hand of 
God, and turning towards his penitent, assured him 
that many masses for the salvation of his soul should 
be said. After the sermon, the archbishop was re- 
quested to declare his own faith ; which he did with 
tears, professing his belief in the holy Scriptures 
and in the Apostles' creed. He then came to that 
which, he said, had troubled his conscience more 
than any thing else which he had done in his life, 
and that was, the subscription of his abjuration. 
This was done out of a fear of death and a love of 
life ; therefore he affirmed his determination, when 



THE MARIAN EPOCH. 



121 



lie came to the fire, of burning first the hand which 
had subscribed the paper." 

The assembly broke up in confusion and disap- 
pointment ; and the venerable and heart-broken 
prelate was led, shedding abundant tears, to the 
stake. On being tied to it, he did indeed stretch 
out his right hand to the flame, never moving it but 
once, to wipe his face, till it dropped off. He often 
cried out, " Oh that unworthy hand, that unworthy 
hand." . And his last words, like Hooper's, were, 
"Lord Jesus, receive my soul."* 

But this volume is not a martyrology ; it is not 
therefore within its scope to go further into these 
sad details. Besides, it were needless to do so ; for 
we may say with Fuller, that " this point hath been 
already handled so curiously and copiously by John 
Fox, that his industry herein hath starved the en- 
deavors of such as shall succeed him, leaving noth- 
ing for their pens to feed upon. 'For what can 
the man do that cometh after the king ? even that 
which hath been already done,' saith Solomon. t 
And Mr. Fox appearing sole emperor in this sub- 
ject, all posterity may despair to add any remarka- 
ble discoveries which have escaped his observation. 
Wherefore, to handle this subject after him, what 
is it but to light a candle to the sun ? or rather, to 
borrow a metaphor from his book, to kindle one 
single stick to the burning of so many fagots. ";|: 

Suffice it then to say, that intolerance, without 

o Neale, vol. 1, pp. G2, G3. 

t Eccles. 2:12. % Fuller, vol. 3, p. 390. 

Puritans. Q 



122 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 

a gleam of charity, brooded over England. It lias 
been claimed that cardinal Pole, the cousin of the 
queen, was opposed to the Sorbonne policy of guid- 
ing the erring by the fagot and the stake.* If it 
be so, "he showed the tameness of his spirit in this : 
that being against cruel proceedings with heretics, 
he did not more openly profess it ; besides, he suf- 
fered both the other bishops to go on, and even 
in Canterbury, now sequestered in his hands and 
soon after put under his care, he left the martyrs 
to the cruelties of the brutal and fierce popish 
clergy."t 

The fact is, that Home can only be consistent 
when she persecutes. Three things force her to do 
so : she claims to be infallible ; she denies salva- 
tion to heretics ; she claims the subserviency of 
the civil powers as the ministers of her imperious 
will. 

Consequently, " with Rome persecution has not 
been an accidental circumstance ; it is the natural 
expression of her spirit, the consistent outgrowth 
of her principles. Other churches have fallen into 
the temptation of employing coercion in spite of 
their system ; but hers has been a throne of iniquity 
which c frameth mischief by a law.' The Protes- 
tant has fancied that he might persecute, the Ro- 
manist was persuaded that he must. The sword 
trembled in the hands of the reformer ; it was 
grasped with terrible energy by the papist. It is 
inconsistent for Protestantism to persecute; it is 

o Lingard. Hume, vol. 2, p. G03. | Burnet, vol. 2, p. 418. 



THE MAEIAN EPOCH. 



123 



inconsistent for Kome not to harry and bleed and 
kill."* 

Still this very reign of Mary proves persecution 
to be impolitic, as well as unjust and unchristian. 
It did not choke heresy. On the contrary, the dis- 
senting sects grew more militant — gained ground, 
"A sort of instinctive reasoning," says Hallam, 
" taught the people what the learned on neither 
side had been able to discover, that the truth of a 
religion begins to be very suspicious when it stands 
in need of prisons and scaffolds to eke out its evi- 
dences. Many are said to have become Protes- 
tants under Mary who, at her coming to the throne, 
had retained the contrary persuasion. "f 

Thus it should seem that the throttled truth still 
found- proselytes, even under this fanatic govern- 
ment. " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked." 
All were not devils, even in the pandemonium of 
this black, midnight reign. 
* Stoughton, pp. 25, 26. 

f Hallam, Const. Hist. Eng., vol. 2, pp, 104, 105. 



124 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

THE EXILES. 

Pubitanism, born in the reign of Edward, was 
nursed in the reign of Mary. 

It will be remembered that, in the dawn of the 
Marian persecution, many "good' men and true" 
quitted Britain, self -banished to the Continent.* 
Some passed into France ; some settled in the 
friendly cities of Flanders ; a few found „ refuge 
under the hospitable crags of republican Switzer- 
land ; others sought homes in the free towns of 
reformed Germany ; and of these last the greater 
part came to reside in Frankfort-on-the-Maine.t 

There the exiles were cordially received ; the 
honest burghers vied with each other in the pro- 
vision of suitable employment ; and the Huguenot 
pastor of a French refugee church, drawn by the 
tie of a kindred misfortune, hastened to invite the 
English Protestants to share the chapel which the 
municipal government had kindly opened for their 
worship.]: 

This arrangement was eventually sanctioned by 
the city senate through the active kindness of one 
of the senators, and it was agreed that the English 
should use the Huguenot chapel alternately with 
* Chapter 8, p. 10G. 

f Troubles at Frankfort ; Neale ; Fuller ; Burnet, etc. 
% Ibid. 



THE EXILES. 



125 



the French ; but to avoid all occasion for bickering 
on forms, the grant was accompanied by this pro- 
viso, that all should assent to the French doctrine 
and ceremony,* based essentially on Calvinism. 

After consultation, the English refugees assented 
to these conditions, although they necessitated a 
departure from their established ritual; and soon 
after they settled quietly and happily in the old 
" White Lady church," which had been originally 
a cloister dedicated to " the blessed Mary Magda- 
len."'}- 

The exiles had arrived in Frankfort in June, 
1554 By the middle of July all these prelimina- 
ries were arranged, and on the last Sunday of the 
month they held their maiden service. It was in 
some respects unique. Responses were interdicted. 
The Litany, surplice, and other ceremonies in ser- 
vice and sacraments, were omitted, both as " super- 
fluous and superstitious." Instead of the English 
Confession, another, more appropriate to their ban- 
ishment, was used. After the Confession, a psalm 
in metre was sung. A prayer succeeded the hymn; 
and that was followed by a sermon. The service 
was concluded by a general prayer for all states, 
and especially for England ending with the Lord's 
prayer, by a rehearsal of the old articles of belief, 
by another hymn, and the benediction.'! 

So radical was the departure from the English 

« Fuller, vol. 2, p. 407. 

t Knox, Hist. Kef. Brook, Lives of the Puritans, 
t Troubles at Frankfort ; Fuller, etc. 



126 HISTOBY OF THE PUBITANS. 



ritual of the refugee congregation of Frankfort 
Puritans. 

It lias been well said, that "the communion of 
saints" never account themselves peaceably pos- 
sessed of any happiness until, if it be within their 
power, they have also made their fellow-sufferers 
partakers thereof. Accordingly the innovating 
church wrote urgent and affectionate letters to the 
neighboring English congregations, inviting all to 
join them at Frankfort.* These missives were 
sent to Emboclen, to Strasburg, to Zurich ; and in 
them the reformers commended their new-modelled 
service, as approaching much closer to the primitive 
form than did king Edward's ritual. t 

The Strasburg divines demurred ; the Protes- 
tants at Basle exhibited no inclination to accede ; 
the churchmen at Zurich refused to come.| Still, 
" let none say that Frankfort might as well come to 
Zurich as Zurich to Frankfort ; for Frankfort was 
near England, and more convenient for receiving 
intelligence tlienc'e and for returning it thither. 
Besides, all Christendom met at Frankfort twice a 
year, the vernal and the autumnal mart; and grant 
that there was more learning at Zurich, there were 
more books at Frankfort, with greater conveniences 
for advancing in study. But chiefly at Frankfort 
the congregation enjoyed most ample privileges ; 
and it was conceived that it would much enure to 
the credit and comfort of the English church if the 

° Troubles at Frankfort ; Fuller, Neale, Newell. 

f Ncalc, vol. 1, p. G3. X Fuller, vol. 2, pp. 408, 409. 



THE EXILES. 



127 



dispersed liandfuls of their exiles were bound up in 
one sheaf, united in one congregation, ' where they 
might serve God in purity of faith and integrity of 
life, having both doctrine and discipline free from 
any mixture of superstition.' "* 

Strengthened by these reflections, and grieved, 
but not discouraged by the equivocal sympathy of 
the surrounding English churches, the Puritans of 
Frankfort walked in their chosen path ; and cast- 
ing their eyes towards Geneva, they selected stout 
John Knox, an exile from Britain like themselves, to 
be their minister. t "Let not men account it incon- 
gruous," says Fuller, " that, among so many able 
and eminent English divines, a Scotchman should 
be made pastor of the English church, seeing that 
Knox's reputed merit did naturalize him, though a 
foreigner, for any Protestant congregation. "J 

Knox had hardly been installed ere a new diffi- 
culty arose. Those refugee congregations which 
adhered to the Established ritual refused to fellow- 
ship their non-conforming brothers in tKe faith. § 
Grieved and anxious, the Puritan congregation for- 
warded the Liturgy to Calvin at Geneva for his 
judgment. || They had previously informed the con- 
forming churches at Strasburg and at Zurich, when 
urged to model their church exactly after king Ed- 
ward's ritual, that they did make no slight use of 

* Fuller, vol. 2, pp. 408, 409. 

t Knox, Hist. Ref., p. 84. McCrie's Life of Knox, vol. 1. 
% Fuller, vol. 2, p. 410. 

§ Newell, p. 100. Burnet, Fuller, Neale. Troubles at Frank- 
fort, || Ibid 



128 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



the service-book, but that, " as for certain unprofit- 
able ceremonies, though some of them were toler- 
able, yet being in a strange country, and therefore 
free to choose, they could not submit to them, and 
indeed they thought it better that they should 
never be practised."* 

Ere long Calvin's verdict arrived at Frankfort. 
" In the Liturgy of England," said he, " I see that 
there is not that purity which were to be desired. 
Those imperfections which could not at the outset 
be amended, were, since there was therein no man- 
ifest impiety, for a season retained and tolerated. 
It was lawful to begin with such rudiments, or a-he- 
ce-daries ; but now it behooves the learned, grave, 
and godly ministers of Christ to enterprise further, 
and to set forth something more filed from rust, 
and purer, "t 

This letter caused some debate ; but finally it 
was agreed to retain the larger portion of the Es- 
tablished ritual, and to add whatever might seem 
appropriate to the fluctuating state of the refugee 
church ;;|; at the same time it was decided to refer 
all future disputes to the arbitration of Calvin, 
Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Yiret.§ 

So stood affairs at Frankfort when, in March, 
1555, the harmony was rudely jarred by the arrival 
of Dr. Richard Cox, " a man of a high spirit, of 
deep learning, unblamable life, and of great credit 



e Neale, vol. 1, p. 08. 

t Calvin ; cited in Fuller, vol. 2, p. 411. 

% Knox, Hist. Kef., p. 31. § Ibid., p. 51. 



THE EXILES. 



129 



among his countrymen, for lie had been tutor unto 
Edward YL," but who had been exiled under Mary's 
rule. 

Cox had been prominent in the compilation of 
the English service-book ;* naturally, therefore, he 
did not look with any favor on the Frankfort inno- 
vations ; nay, he determined either to remould into 
conformity, or to destroy what he considered the 
mushroom ceremonies of the refugee congregation. 

Accordingly he went, accompanied by a corps 
of equally zealous colleagues, one Sunday into the 
" White Lady church," and contrary to the settled 
order of procedure, answered aloud after the min- 
ister.t When admonished, he replied that he should 
do as he had been wont to do in England, and he 
further declared that the Frankfort church should 
have the face of an English congregation.^ 

On the succeeding Sunday a still ruder breach 
of decorum occurred. One' of Cox's company as- 
cended the pulpit, and without the previous consent 
or knowledge of the church, intoned the entire Lit- 
urgy, while the interlopers in the pews responded 
aloud.§ This was in the morning; in the afternoon 
Knox sternly rebuked this insolence, which he said 
it " became not the proudest of them all to have 
attempted."! 

Many animosities and intermediate bickerings 
between the two parties may well be emitted, espe- 

* Newell, p. 101, note. Burnet. 

f Troubles at Frankfort. Fuller. % Ibid. Newell, p. 101. 
§ Ibid. || Knox, Hist. Ref., p. 51. 

6* 



130 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



dally at one conference, wherein Cox is charged 
with having come with his argument db auctoritate, 
Ego volo habere* Knox's adherents finding them- 
selves disturbed and ill-used, "got one voice on 
their side stronger and louder than all the rest, the 
authority of the senate of Frankfort. That magis- 
trate who had befriended the refugees and procured 
them the chapel, announced that if the reformed 
order of the congregation were not observed, 'as 
he had opened the church door unto them, so would 
lie shut it again.' "f 

Beaten at fair weapons, the Coxians resorted to 
mean ones. They accused Knox of high , treason 
against the emperor of Germany in this, that in an 
English pamphlet, entitled, " An Admonition to 
Christians," printed some years before in Britain, 
he had affirmed the emperor to be " no less an 
enemy to Christ than Nero. "J The senate, alarm- 
ed — for Frankfort was "an imperial city, highly 
concerned to be tender of the emperor's honor" — 
requested Knox to quit the town, which, in March, 
1556, he did, to the great grief of his congregation. § 
" Strange," moralizes Fuller, <c that words spoken 
years before, in another land and language, against 
the emperor, to whom Knox owed no natural alle- 
giance—though since a casual and accidental one, 
by his removal into an imperial city — should, in 
this unhappy juncture, be urged against him by 



* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 412. "By authority, I will have it so." 
t Troubles at Frankfort, p. 40. 

% Ibid. Knox, Hist. Eef. McCrie, Life of Knox. § Ibid. 



THE EXILES. 



131 



exiles of his own religion, even to no less than the 
endangering of his life. Such too often is the bad- 
ness of good people, that, in the heat of passion, 
they account any play to be fair-play which tends 
to the overthrow of those with whom they contend."* 
Having now gotten rid of the chief obstacle to 
their programme, the jubilant Coxians at once pro- 
ceeded to set up the service-book, which the magis- 
trates permitted ; they next ignored the old church 
officers, and elected new ones, and they crowned 
their reconstruction by the appointment of another 
pastor.f 

The Puritans protested in vain ; and the suc- 
cessful party refused to refer all difficulties to the 
arbitration of the reformed divines, " because, be- 
ing already possessed of the power, they would not 
divest themselves of the whole to receive but part 
again from the courtesy of others. However, they 
lost much reputation by the refusal; for in all con- 
troversies, that side recusant to submit its claims 
to a fair arbitration, contracts the just suspicion 
either that their cause is faulty, or that its mana- 
gers are froward and morose."^ 

Yet, notwithstanding their determination to in- 
voke no outside decision, the Coxians wrote Calvin, 
and urged him to sanction their proceedings, which 
of course he refused to do ; on the contrary, "after 
a modest excuse for refusing to meddle in their 
affairs, he told them that, in his opinion, they were 

* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 412. f Troubles at Frankfort, p. 52. 
% Fuller, vol. 2, p. 414. 



132 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



too much addicted to the English ceremonies; nor 
could he see to what purpose it was to burden the 
church with hurtful and offensive things, when there 
was liberty to have a simpler, purer service. He 
blamed their conduct towards Knox, which he said 
was neither godly nor brotherly ; and he concluded 
by urging them to prevent divisions among them- 
selves."* 

Vainly did the great divine cry peace from Swit- 
zerland. " There was no peace." 

"With many tears the old congregation quitted 
Frankfort, and separated, some tarrying at Basle, 
others pressing on to Geneva, where a new church 
was formed under Knox, which " lived in great har- 
mony and love until the storm of persecution blew 
over, at the death of Mary."t Those who had acted 
this unjust part at Frankfort did not find peace 
restored by the departure of the " come-outers." 
New tares were sown, and the church was fretted 
by endless contentions. But Cox, leaving the strife 
unmedicined, passed on, and provided himself with 
a less expensive abiding place.;): 

These troubles were the earliest, infant cry of 
Puritanism ; and we have gone thus into detail 
because " the pen-knives of that age grew into the 
swords of an older epoch." 

When the Coxians flung after the dissenting 
party the epithet " schismatics," there arose a dis- 
pute as to whether that name could be applicable 



* Neale, vol. 1, p. 70. 

t McOrie, Life of Knox, vol. 1. p. 157. 



$ Ibid. 



THE EXILES. 



133 



to those who, agreeing in doctrine, dissented only 
in superfluous ceremonies.* Some boldly affirmed 
that the reformers of king Edward's reign had no 
thought that they had settled definitively the eccle- 
siastical canons of the English church. It was said 
that the fathers of the English Reformation regard- 
ed their work as merely initiatory ; and the opin- 
ions of Cranmer, Hooper, Latimer, and Ridley were 
cited in proof. t The assertion was openly made 
that these eminent theologians recognized but two 
orders of clergy as jure-divino — bishops or ministers, 
and deacons ; J that Hooper, in his letter to Bullin- 
ger, in February, 1548, said, "The archbishop of 
Canterbury, and the bishops of Rochester, Ely, St. 
David's, and Lincoln, were sincerely set on advanc- 
ing the purity of doctrine, agreeing m all things ivith 
the Helvetic churches ;"§ that the churches of Dutch, 
French, German, and Italian Protestants, by whom 
the Reformation had been carried far bej^ond Eng- 
land, were encouraged by Cecil and by Cranmer, 
while the king granted them letters-patent " freely 
and quietly to use their own peculiar ecclesiastical 
discipline, notwithstanding they do not agree with the 
rites and ceremonies now used in Great Britain ,"|| and 
that the acts of the individual reformers showed 
that their object was not to anchor so near to Rome 
in outward observances, but to find harbor at a 
greater distance from the formulas of Latin ortho- 



» Fuller, vol. 2, p. 414. 

t Puncbard, vol. 2, ch. 7, passim. 

§ Burnet, vol. 3, p. 201. 



\ Ibid. 
|| Ibid. 



134 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



doxy, as witness Hooper's position in the "vest- 
ment controversy," and Ridley's injunctions to his 
diocese in 1550.* 

To crown all, it was urged that Martyr, Bucer, 
Fagius, and Tremellius, the eminent oriental schol- 
ar, all expressed views opposed to the existing Es- 
tablishment ; that Knox, an open non-conformist, 
received his salary as a royal chaplain till Edward's 
death ; that all these thinkers regarded the Refor- 
mation as progressive ; that upon their learning and 
judgment great reliance was placed throughout 
king Edward's reign ; and that they all advocated 
a further departure from the state ritual towards 
apostolic simplicity.t 

The opposite party held these views to be chi- 
merical, stamped them as the idle or malicious tales 
of ignorant tradition, and believed, with a recent 
distinguished churchman, that " the work of the 
reformers was to restore, not to destroy; and that 
they intentionally stopped at that point at which 
they believed their object would be accomplished.''^ 

So early did the two great parties in the Eng- 
lish church, the Progressives and the Conserva- 
tives, encamp on their respective theories. Even 
in banishment the champions on either side began 
to arm. 

But " it may be inquired how these exiles were 
maintained, considering the vast numbers of them, 
and the poverty of many. God stirred up the 

■» Burnet, vol. 3, p. 305. f Newell, p. 85. 

f Lathbury, pp. 120, 121. 



THE EXILES. 



135 



bowels of the abler sort, both in England and in 
those parts where they sojourned, to pity and re- 
lieve them by very liberal contributions conveyed 
unto them from time to time. From London espe- 
cially came often very large allowances ; till Gar- 
diner, who had his spies everywhere, got know- 
ledge of it ; when, by casting these benefactors into 
prison, and finding means to impoverish them, that 
channel of charity was in a great measure stopped. 
After this, the senators at Zurich, at the instance 
of Bullinger their superintendent, opened their 
treasures to them. Besides, those great ornaments 
of religion and learning, Calvin, Melancthon, Gual- 
tier, Lavater, and others, sent them daily most 
comfortable letters, and omitted no duty of love 
and humanity to them throughout their banish- 
ment. Some of the persons of wealth and estate 
sent also their benevolences, among the rest the 
duke of "Witteroburg, who gave at one time to the 
exiled English at Strasburg four hundred dollars, 
in addition to a larger sum previously given at 
Frankfort."* 

But all did not subsist on charity. At Geneva, 
" a club of them" employed themselves in translat- 
ing the Bible into English.! At Basle, "many 
poor scholars made shift to live in these hard 
times" by their peculiar care and diligence in cor- 
recting proof for the eminent printers of that city, J 



* Strype, Life of Cranmer, vol. 1, p. 519. 
f Newell, p. 103. Fuller, vol. 2, p. 421. 
t Humphrey, Life of Jewel, p. 87. 



136 HISTOKY OF THE PUBITANS. 



over wliicli the shadow of Faust's printing-press 
seemed to rest. 

But the hours even of the dreariest exile will 
pass. The year 1558 opened the hospitable conti- 
nental prison-house. One morning the news of 
Mary's death flashed over Europe. If Home heard 
it aghast, the Beforniation heard it with hope. The 
refugees hastened to. lay down the half-read proof- 
sheet, to close their open books, and with many a 
vale they set out for home. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 137 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 

England awoke from her nightmare with a shud- 
der and in a chill. The dizzy terror was passed. 
Men drew a long breath and heaved a sigh. Mary 
Tudor found few to regret her.* Her reign had 
been as disastrous in its foreign politics as in its 
domestic government. The people, ominously sul- 
len, growled and muttered. The nobles were dis- 
satisfied. Parliament had long been alienated from 
the court ; its members had marked the determina- 
tion of the queen to surrender the kingdom at dis- 
cretion to Rome, her anxiety to elevate the clergy 
into undue importance, and the fierceness of her 
bloody faith. t 

Troubled by these S} T mptoms of royal fanati- 
cism, Parliament peered doubtfully into the por- 
tentous future ; England at large fretted and shud- 
dered. Consequently the report of " Bloody Mary's " 
death occasioned only the niost ghastly semblance 
of woe. Indeed Britain could hardly restrain a 

* Mary died November 17, 1558, in her forty-third year, and in 
the sixth year of her reign. Her marriage with Pinup II. had no 
issue. This increased the fierceness of her temper, and made her 
fret herself into the grave. "She was a princess of severe princi- 
ples, and little given to diversions. She did not mind any branch 
of the government so much as the church, being entirely at the 
disposal of her clergy, and forward to sanction all their cruelties." 
Neale. vol 1, p. 75. f Burnet, vol. 2, p. 411. 



138 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



shout of exultation. The masses, overlooking their 
theological disputes, expressed general and un- 
feigned joy that the sceptre had passed into the 
hands of Elizabeth.* 

Elizabeth's succession was not contested. Par- 
liament chanced to be in session on Mary's decease. 
Upon being apprized of that event, "scarcely an 
interval of regret appeared; and the two houses 
immediately resounded with the joyful acclamation 
of, ' God save queen Elizabeth !' The people, less 
actuated by faction, and less influenced by private 
views, expressed a joy still more general and hearty 
on her proclamation."f 

Yet, though not a ripple stirred the placid sea, 
the keen good sense of the maiden queen was not 
misled. She knew that there was an under-current 
of dissent and hatred which ran swift and strong. 
She was an avowed Protestant ; Romanism was the 
state religion. She was known to favor the Refor- 
mation ; the clergy and the placemen of her sister's 
reign could not but be her foes.J 

Besides, England was at war with France, and 
she stood with a bankrupt treasury. The mer- 
chants on the Rialtos of the world refused her 
credit. The British arms, broken and demoralized, 
skulked before the victorious eagles of the French. 
All those conquests, which it had cost the nation 
so much sweat and blood to acquire, the dowry 
of two hundred triumphant years, were lost in less 

* Hume, vol. 1, p. 710. f P- 712. 

X lingard, Reign of Elizabeth. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



139 



than half as many weeks ; while, bitterest mortifi- 
cation of all, Calais, the key to France, had, by the 
negligence of Britain, slipped from her girdle.* 

So gloomy was the foreign outlook, so wrecked 
were the domestic fortunes of England when the 
youngest daughter of Henry VIII. came to ascend 
her father's throne. The times bade her beware ; 
the least false step might precipitate her into the 
abyss. 

Thus circumstanced, Elizabeth determined for 
the present to preserve the cautious statu quo of the 
old law ; religious changes were adjourned ; the 
government devoted itself to finance and foreign 
politics. The Romish clergy kept their livings ; the 
ejected churchmen of the last reign were barred 
from their dioceses, and England still echoed to 
the celebration of the mass.t 

Elizabeth stooped to dissemble. The pope had 
pronounced her illegitimate half the courts of Eu- 
rope tabooed her royalty ;§ Mary of Scots claimed 
the English crown || — which the maiden queen never 
forgave - , and one day revenged; but when her throne 
was consolidated, the imperious princess meant to 
dictate law not only to her island, but to Christen- 
dom. 

Her first move on the chess-board of politics 
was wise. She had been not only ill-used, but often 

* Fuller, Lingard, etc. 

t Nesde, vol. 1, p. 77; Burnet, Collier. 

% Collier, Church Hist., vol. 2. § Ibid. 

If Hullam, Cons. Hist. ; Ncale, Fuller. 



140 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



in peril of her life, while Mary ruled. The counsel- 
lors of that policy were now in her hands, yet she 
forgave them, and buried the past in oblivion."* 
This was followed by a proclamation forbidding 
innovations, and legalizing the existing state of 
affairs until the convention of Parliament. f 

In January, 1558, Parliament assembled at West- 
minster. It was stoutly Protestant, and cordially 
favored a reform.:]; The religious enactments of 
Mary's reign were repealed ; the laws of Henry 
YIIL against the see of Rome were dug from the 
grave and placed again upon the statute-book ; the 
acts of Edward VI. were resuscitated and reen- 
acted.§ 

The title of supreme head " of the church of 
England" was omitted in all these acts, as being 
inap23ropriate, since " Christ alone was the supreme 
Sovereign of the church ;"|| but all loyal English- 
men were tied by oath to " acknowledge the queen 
to be the only and supreme governor of her king- 
doms in all matters and causes, as well spiritual as 
temporal, all foreign princes and protestants being 
quite excluded from taking cognizance of causes 
within her dominions."!" 

The ordinary convocation accompanied this par- 
liament, but it " was very small and silent ; for as 
it is observed in nature, when one twin is of an un- 

* Hume, vol. 1, p. 710. f Ibid. 

X Newell, p. 114 ; Burnet ; Strype, etc. 
§ Statutes of the Realm, 1 Elizabeth. 

|| Kaiuolds against Hart, p. 38. IT Fuller, vol. 2, p. 441. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



141 



usual strength and bigness, the other, his partner 
born with him, is weak and dwindled away ; so 
here, this parliament being very active in matters 
of religion, the convocation, younger brother there- 
to, was little employed and less regarded."* 

It was esteemed important that the papists who 
were still in possession of the episcopal sees should 
be verbally vanquished ere being ejected. Accord- 
ingly a disputation was appointed to take place, 
before the queen's privy-council and both houses 
of Parliament, between the champions of the two 
creeds, each side to be defended by nine de- 
baters.t 

This debate resulted in more noise than fruit ; 
gave birth to more passion than reason, more cavils 
than argument.^: Still there was something gained ; 
for the Romanists, finding that the popular verdict 
was against them, broke off the dispute on the plea 
that their cause ought not to be submitted to such 
an arbitration^ But in this they condemned them- 
selves, for they had not scrupled to debate with 

* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 443. 

f Collier, vol. 2, book 6. Their names were, White, bishop of 
Winchester ; Bayn, bishop of Litchfield ; Scott, bishop of Ches- 
ter ; Wilson, bishop of Lincoln ; Cole, clean of St. Paul's ; Horps- 
field, archdeacon of Canterbury ; Chadsey, prebendary of St. 
Paul's ; Langdale, archdeacon of Lewis, on the papist side ; and 
Story, late bishop of Chichester ; Cox, late dean of Westminster ; 
Hern, late dean of Durham ; Elmar, late archdeacon of Stow, and 
Messrs. Whitehead, Grinal, Guest, and Jewel, on the Protestant 
side. Collier gives the speeches at great length, vol. 2, book G, 
part 2. t Puller, vol. 2, p. 447. 

§ Collier, vol. 2, book G ; Ncale, Burnet. 



142 HISTORY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Crannier, Ridley, and Latimer in the preceding 
reign, when the verdict was assured to them.* This 
was now remembered ; and it was concluded that, 
since they had quitted the arena, their cause must 
be clearly indefensible — that " they only loved to 
have syllogisms in their mouths when they had 
swords in their hands." 

The beaten Romanists were now commanded to 
take the oath of supremacy, t This the larger part 
did ;J those who refused were summarily ejected 
from their livings, and several of the more promi- 
nent were imprisoned. Bonner was thrust into the 
Marshalsea, "a jail being conceived the safest place 
in which to secure him from the people's fury, every 
hand itching to give a good squeeze to that sponge 
of blood. "§ 

So much being gained, it came now to be con- 
sidered essential to secure uniformity of faith in 
England; for the Elizabethan epoch, grown no wiser 
in the lapse of time, was just as eager to mutter 
that shibboleth as the era of Edward or the age of 
Henry. 

There now existed more perceptibly than ever, 
since the influx of the continental exiles, a large 
and influential party in England in favor of the 
service and discipline of the Genevan and Lutheran 
churches. They held the continental model to be 
purer and more nearly in accord with the primitive 
worship. These reformers began at this time to be 

1 * Chapter 8, p. 110. f Burnet, voL 2. 

t Newell, p. 116. § Fuller. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



143 



styled Puritans, because they urged the establish- 
ment of a purer ecclesiasticisni.* 

Opposed to the Puritans was another large 
party who were zealous for the service-book of 
Edward. VI. ; who desired to divorce the English 
church from Home only upon doctrinal points ; 
who held rites and ceremonies to be indifferent, 
but who preferred those of the holy see because 
they were venerable and striking, and because old 
associations hallowed them in the hearts of the 
people, t 

These parties agreed exactly in doctrine ; they 
only quarrelled over forms. 

But this may be said for the Puritans, that 
while their opponents held the ceremonies to be 
non-essential, they considered them to be of vast im- 
portance ; for they bridged the chasm which yawn- 
ed between Pome and the Reformation. Ignorant 
men, dazzled by the similarity in discipline, might 
not clearly perceive the radical difference in spirit; 
wedded to one superstition, this might breed oth- 
ers. It was best to fix a gulf between the island 
and the Vatican. As Protestantism was primitive 
in its creed, so ought it to be in its discipline. 

"But the queen inherited the spirit of her father, 
and affected great magnificence in her devotions as 
well as in her court. She was fond of many of the 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 86. "Such as refused to conform and sub- 
scribe to the Liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the church, 
were branded by the bishops with the odious name of Puritans." 
Fuller, vol. 2, p. 474. t Hud. 



144 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



old rites and ceremonies in which she had been 
educated. She thought that her brother had strip- 
ped religion of too many of its ornaments — made 
the doctrines of the church too narrow on some 
points. It was therefore with difficulty that she 
was prevailed on to go even to the full length of 
king Edward's reformation;" it was plain that she 
never would smile upon Puritanism. 

One of Elizabeth's earliest acts was to empower 
a committee of divines to revise the Liturgy. Sub- 
stantially it was left unchanged, but some altera- 
tions were introduced to render the service more 
acceptable to the papal party.* Then the same 
parliament which had passed the act of supremacy, 
now placed upon the statute-book the twin law of 
uniformity, f 

It was a clause of this statute which gave birth 
to those famous courts of High Commission and 
"Star-chamber," which make so prominent a figure 
in the history of a hundred years. The first of 
these tribunals possessed the authority which 
Henry VIII. had lodged in the single person of 
Lord Cromwell, "to visit, reform, redress, order, 
correct, and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, 
abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities what- 
soever.":); 

We shall discover how pregnant with evil this 
arbitrary court became. Standing without and 

* Collier, vol. 2. 

f Statutes, 1 Elizabeth. Camden, vol. 2, p. 372. D'Ewes. 
f Ibid. Lingard, vol. 7. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



145 



above the common law," calling in no intervention 
of juries, f alien to the spirit of the English Consti- 
tution,:); irresponsible, stupendous, ominous, an in- 
carnate fraud, this misshapen colossus of the law 
sported from the very outset in the most wanton 
acts of tyranny which no tribunal was empowered 
to curb. 

Having now gotten the law settled and the 
courts arranged, the government set itself to en- 
force conformity. "Upon this fatal rock of uni- 
formity in things merely indifferent, at least in the 
opinion of the imposers," says Neale, "was the 
peace of the church of England split. The pre- 
tence was decency and order ; but it seems a little 
strange that uniformity should be necessary to the 
decent worship of God, when in most other things 
there is a greater beauty in variety. It is not nec- 
essary to a decent dress that men's clothes should 
be all of the same color and fashion ; nor would 
there be any indecorum or disorder if in one con- 
gregation the sacrament should be administered 
kneeling, in another sitting, and in a third standing ; 
or if in one and the same congregation the minister 
was at liberty to read prayers either in a black 
gown or in a surplice. The rigorous pressure of 
this act was the occasion of all the mischiefs which 
befell the church for above eighty years. What 
good end could it answer to press men into the use 
of a service without convincing their minds of its 

* Macauley, Hist. Eng. f See the body of the act. 

J Hallam, Const. Hist. 

Fm!tan8. hr 



146 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



propriety ? If there must be one established form, 
there should certainly be an indulgence to tender 
consciences. When there was a difference in the 
church of the Komans about eating flesh and ob- 
serving festivals, the apostle did not pinch them 
with an act of uniformity, but allowed a latitude.* 
Had the reformers followed this apostolic prece- 
dent, the church of England would have made a 
still more glorious figure in the Protestant world."t 

In 1559 the vacant sees were filled by Protes- 
tants ;J Parker was preferred to the archiepiscopal 
see of Canterbury, and the ceremony was performed 
without gloves or sandals, rings or slippers, mitre 
or pall ; even the episcopal vestments were omit- 
ted,! an d- the consecration was by hands only. 
Strange that the archbishop should be satisfied 
with this in his own case, and yet be so zealous to 
impose the obnoxious garments upon the Puritans.il 
All the new bishops were confirmed in their dioce- 
san dignities by an act of Parliament. T 

And now Elizabeth's government, civil and ec- 
clesiastical, had "settled clown into fixed ways." It 
began to dictate ; it assumed to control. 

Just here it becomes important to familiarize 
ourselves with the salient features of agreement 
and disagreement between the rising parties of the 
Conformists and the Puritans in the church of 



* Komans 14 : 5. 

t Fuller, vol. 2. 

|j Camden, Neale, D'Ewes. 

f Fuller, Burnet, Neale. 



f Neale, vol. 1, pp. 87, 88. 
§ Neale, vol. 1, p. 89. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



147 



England. These Neale has admirably grouped, 
and we cite his resume: 

" The court reformers believed that every prince 
had authority to correct all abuses of doctrine and 
worship within his own territories. Actuated by 
this principle, Parliament submitted the consciences 
and religion of the whole nation to the disposal of 
the king, and in case of a minority, to his council ; 
so that the monarch was sole reformer, and might 
model the doctrine and discipline of the church as 
he pleased, provided his injunctions did not ex- 
pressly contradict the statute law of the realm. 

" The Puritans disowned all foreign jurisdiction 
over the church equally with the court, but they 
could not admit of that extensive power which the 
crown claimed by the supremacy, apprehending it 
to be unreasonable that the religion of a state 
should be at the disposal of a single lay-person. 
However, they took the oath, with the queen's ex- 
planation that it only restored to her majesty the 
ancient and natural rights of sovereign princes over 
their own subjects. 

" It was admitted by the court reformers that 
the church of Home was a true church, though cor- 
rupt in many points of doctrine and government ; 
that her ministrations were valid, and that the pope 
was a true bishop of Pome, though not of the uni- 
versal church. It was thought necessary by some 
to maintain this, since their bishops thus derived 
their, succession from the apostles. 

" But the Puritans affirmed the pope to be an- 



148 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



tichrist, the cliurcli of Rome to be no church, and 
her ministrations to be superstitious and idolatrous ; 
they renounced her communion, and dared not risk 
the validity of their ordinations upon an uninter- 
rupted line of succession from the apostles through 
their liancls. 

" It was agreed by all that the Holy Scriptures 
were a perfect rule of faith ; but the court reform- 
ers did not allow them to be a standard of disci- 
pline or church government, affirming that the Sav- 
iour and his apostles left it to the discretion of the 
civil magistrate, in those places where Christianity 
should obtain, to accommodate the government of 
the church to the policy of the state. 

"The Puritans held the Scriptures to be a stand- 
ard of discipline as well as doctrine, or at least, they 
thought that nothing should be imposed as neces- 
sary which was not expressly contained in Holy 
Writ, or derived from it by inevitable sequence. 
And if it could be proved that all things necessary 
to the government of the church could not be de- 
duced from Scripture, they maintained that the dis- 
cretionary power was not vested in the civil magis- 
trate, but in the spiritual officers of the church.* 

" The court reformers maintained that the prac- 
tice of the primitive church, during the first four or 
five Christian centuries, was a proper standard of 
church government, and in some respects better 

* From this it should seem that the Puritans thought that the 
civil magistrate might properly claim jurisdiction over all matters 
involving manifest breaches of the Scripture discipline. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



149 



than that of the apostles, which was only accom- 
modated to the infancy of the church while it was 
under persecution, whereas theirs was suited to the 
grandeur of a national establishment, Therefore 
they only pared off the latter corruptions of the 
papacy, from the time the pope usurped the title of 
universal' bishop, and left those institutions stand- 
ing which they could trace higher, as archbishops, 
metropolitans, archdeacons, suffragans, rural deans, 
which were not known in the apostolic age, nor in 
those which immediately succeeded it. 

"But the Puritans were for admitting no church 
officers or ordinances but such as are appointed in 
Scripture. They apprehended that the form of gov- 
ernment ordained by the apostles was theocratic, 
according to the constitution of the Jewish sanhe- 
drim, and was designed as a pattern for the church- 
es of after ages, not to be departed from in its main 
features ; and therefore they paid no regard to the 
customs of the papacy, or the practice of the ear- 
lier ages of Christianity, except in so far as these 
corresponded with the Scriptures. 

"The court reformers maintained that things 
indifferent in their owtl nature, which are neither 
commanded nor forbidden in the Scriptures, such 
as rites, ceremonies, habits, might he settled, de- 
termined, and made necessary by the command of 
the civil magistrate; and that in such cases it was 
the indispensable duty of good citizens to observe 
them. 

" The Puritans insisted that those things which 



150 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Christ had left indifferent, ought not to be made 
necessary by human laws. They affirmed that if 
the magistrate might impose things indifferent, and 
make them necessary in the service of God, he 
might dress up religion in any shape, and instead 
of one ceremony, he might load it with a hundred. 
Besides, it was urged that such rites and ceremo- 
nies as had been abused to idolatry, and tended to 
lead men back to popery, were no longer indiffer- 
ent, but were to be rejected as unlawful. 

"Both Puritan and Conformist agreed too well 
in asserting the necessity of uniformity in public 
worship, and of using the sword of the magistrate 
for the support and defence of their principles, of 
which they both made an ill use whenever they 
could grasp the power in their hands. The stand- 
ard of uniformity, according to one, was the queen's 
supremacy and the statute law ; according to the 
other, the decrees of provincial and national syn- 
ods, allowed and enforced by the civil magistrate. 
Neither party admitted that liberty of conscience, 
which is every man's right."* 

Such were the respective tenets of the Conform- 
ist and the Puritan parties. Neither made broad 
its phylactery, and inscribed thereon the golden 
rule of toleration. Neither had yet grown wise 
enough to dare trust Justice. Neither maintained 
"the liberty of the children of God." 

A swollen establishment on one side cried, Con- 
form ! Doubting consciences on the other side said, 
* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 90-92. 



THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 



151 



No ; and then struggled to acquire power, that they 
might, in their turn, play Sir Omnipotent, and dra- 
goon churchmen into conformity with their idea. 
To say " toleration" in that age, was like hallooing 
in the midst of the avalanches. Still, the tendency 
of Puritanism was towards democracy. The cour- 
tiers recognized this, and perhaps that was one rea- 
son why Elizabeth so rudely curbed it. The Puri- 
tans believed in God ; they also believed in the 
people. They disliked caste. Puritanism was the 
outgrowth of an interior life, the protest of a hun- 
gry conscience against dead forms ; it was the in- 
surrection of the soul against the body. 



152 



HIST OB Y OF THE PTJBITANS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

STAK-CHAMBEE DECEEES. 

The sheet-anchor of peaceful faith is toleration. 
Civil and religions liberty, born of the New Testa- 
ment, have at length won recognition. The strug- 
gle of eighteen hundred years touches its climax in 
a proclamation of divorcement between church and 
state. 

In the United States we have placed two prin- 
ciples in our fundamental law : 

Civil government is the protector of life, liberty, 
and property. It is the guaranty of political rights. 
Is a man wronged in person or in estate ? there are 
the courts. It may not meddle with religious ten- 
ets, unless these breed gross acts of outward immo- 
rality ; it cannot enforce a creed. Its single relig- 
ious duty is to insure toleration. The jurisdiction 
of the state is merely political. 

The kingdom of God is "not of this world." 
Therefore the jurisdiction of the church is purely 
spiritual. Her ordinances are spiritual; so ought 
her weapons to be. Her sword is Scripture, and 
her shield is reason. The pillars and the walls of 
her temple are exhortations, admonitions, reproofs. 
But the church may not dictate through civil pen- 
alties. She is tied to her functions precisely as the 
state is to its jurisdiction. The breakers of civil 
laws may be punished by weapons which affect their 



STAE-CHAMBEE DECEEES. 153 



liberty and their property ; the breakers of ecclesi- 
astical canons may be disciplined by censure, or by 
the withdrawal of Christian fellowship. The courts 
of law take cognizance of the first species of offence ; 
the court of conscience takes cognizance of the other. 
A citizen does not necessarily lose his civil rights 
when he changes his creed, or when he disqualifies 
himself for church-membership. 

These two distinctive principles our ancestors 
could not understand. No party in the sixteenth 
century rose to the level of defending them. Not 
the papist, because his faith necessarily required 
intolerance ; not the conformist, because he upheld 
the right of the government to dictate uniformity, 
even in non-essential things ; not the Puritan, be- 
cause he believed that the civil magistrate possess- 
ed the power to enforce whatever was agreeable 
to the Scripture text. Had these principles pre- 
vailed at the Reformation, truth and charity would 
have exorcised the spirit of discord, and there would 
have been no ground for the unhappy quarrel which 
eventually expanded from arguments into swords. 

History teaches by example ; and in the lurid 
light of such a past, we may read at once a warn- 
ing and a prophecy. 

But Elizabeth was tormented by no scruples. 
She assumed the power, if she had it not, to ran- 
sack consciences. She was prouder of her ecclesi- 
astical supremacy than of all the rest of her royal 
prerogatives heaped together ;* and her imperious 
* Sto^ell, p. 122. Neale. Collier, vol. 2, book 6. 
7* 



154 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



temper could ill brook contradiction in the realm of 
morals. Consequently when she discovered that, 
despite the statute of uniformity, the Puritans " re- 
fused to bow the knee to Baal," and that in their 
contumacy they were favored in great measure by 
her bishops* and by the chief members of her own 
council — by Leicester, by "Walsingham, by the lord 
keeper Bacon, and by Knollys, whom Strype, with 
a spice of sarcasm, styles "the Puritan's chief in- 
strument "t — when all this came to the ears of the 
impetuous princess, her rage bubbled over and blis- 
tered the offenders. " S'death, sirs," cried Eliza- 
beth, " am I to be silent and easy while my very 
officers wink at impudent puritanical innovations 
which sap the foundations of the church?" The 
aroused queen then stirred Parker, archbishop of 
Canterbury, to invoke the rigors of the law against 
all non-conformists ; and the frightened prelate, 
dropping the policy of delay, launched upon Pu- 
ritanism the penalties of suspension, deprivation, 
sequestration, excommunication, and whatever oth- 
er pains might from time to time seem meet to the 
Star-chamber court.:]: 

The ensuing persecution is rich in its record of 
steadfast devotion and Christian suffering. Hun- 
dreds bowed meekly to ejectment from their livings 
and to cruel imprisonment,! confident that physical 

* Strype, Annals, vol. 1. p. 117. 

f Strype, Life of Parker, p. 152, and on. 

% Ibid., vol. 1, p. 309. 

§ Hopkins, vol. 1, p. 234. Soames, pp. 29, 30. 



STAE - CHAM BEE DECEEES. 



155 



ills might be medicined, but aware that no human 
leech could cure the hurt of an undone conscience. 
Still, in spite of his utmost exertions, archbishop 
Parker discovered that a dozen rushed to occupy 
the post of every soldier whom he disarmed.* He 
was also much embarrassed by the lukewarmness of 
his fellow-bishops and of the queen's council. " If 
you remedy it not by letter," wrote Parker to the 
celebrated Cecil, Lord Burleigh, "I will no more 
strive against the stream, fume or chide who will."t 
London was at this time the Gibraltar of Puri- 
tanism ;% and the non-conformist clergy of the 
metropolis were enlightened, determined, conscien- 
tious, and eminently learned men.§ Elizabeth, pro- 
voked that Puritanism should be preached under 
the very shadow of her throne, nay, muttered in 
every corridor of her palace, issued another proc- 
lamation in 1565, peremptorily requiring uniform- 
ity ; and under this, a number of the offending min- 
isters were cited before Star-chamber commission- 
ers, forbidden to utter a word in defence of their 
action, and called on to choose instantly between 
suspension and conformity. Thirty refused to sub- 
scribe, repeating the words of the apostles, " Wheth- 
er it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto 
you rather than unto God, judge ye." The others 
submitted under protest, crying out as they quitted 
the court, " We are killed, we are killed in the soul 



* Hopkins, vol. 1, p. 234. Soarnes, pp. 29, 30. 

t Strype, Life of Parker, vol. 1, p. 318. 

% Ibid., pp. 423, 427. § Newell, p. 121. 



156 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



of our souls for this pollution of ours ; for that we 
cannot practise our holy ministry in the singleness 
of our hearts."* 

But the desideratum was outward conformity, 
not honesty of conviction; and in this hunt the 
wail of outraged consciences was little heeded. A 
stringent oath, binding the taker to unquestioning 
and patient obedience to the commands of the civil 
and ecclesiastical authorities, was framed, and this 
all clergymen were required to take before the cure 
of souls should be conferred upon them.f In every 
parish a bureau of spies was established, with or- 
ders to report at stated intervals to the Star-cham- 
ber court 4 It was customary at that time for the 
archiepiscopal see to issue licences to the clergy. 
Without this authority, ministers might not preach. 
Now all old licences were cancelled ; preachers were 
commanded to provide themselves with new ones ; 
and in these a clause was inserted which bound the 
holder to submit to the control of his ecclesiastical 
superiors.§ 

This done, Elizabeth smoothed her ruffles, smil- 
ed complacently, cried, " Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
sians," and imagined that Puritanism had met both 
the first death and the last. But alas, non-conform- 
ity " would not down at her bidding." "When she 
thought all avenues to the parish pulpits blocked 

* Strype, Life of Grindal, p. 145. 
f Ibid., Annals, vol. 1, pp. 131, 132. 

X Ibid., Life of Parker, vol. 1, p. 431. Neale, vol. I, p. 240. 
§ Ibid. 



STAR-CHAMBER DECREES. 



157 



up, lo, one which might not be barred was still open. 
By a grant originally conferred by Pope Alexander 
VI. and confirmed by Elizabeth, the university of 
Cambridge had the right to license yearly twelve 
ministers. To the validity of the college license 
no diocesan assent was needed ; the imprimatur of 
Cambridge was sufficient. Cambridge was at this 
time under Puritan influence ; and therefore a num- 
ber of stout dissenters were kept in the ministry 
despite the opposition of his grace of Canterbury.* 

But in the main, the government achieved its 
purpose by the test-oath. The labors of a host of 
devoted ministers were stopped. f Hundreds of 
churches were entirely closed ; for at best the sup- 
ply of Protestant preachers was very limited ;% and 
the Londoners, refusing to listen to the conforming 
chaplains, would not attend service at all, unless 
they could steal away and hearken to the exhorta- 
tions of Coverdale, Sampson, Lever, and others of 
the disfranchised clergy who from time to time 
proclaimed the gospel to the poor from secret cel- 
lars and obscure dens, the catacombs of London. § 

Gagged and expelled from the pulpit, the Puri- 
tans now had recourse to the press, that trumpet- 
toned avenger of the throttled truth. A war of 
pamphlets ensued ; and the archbishop, beholding 
the popular attention which the controversy attract- 

* Ptmchard, vol. 2, p. 452. 

f Nesde, vol. 1, p. 244. Strype's Parker, vol. 1, p. 380. 
% Hopkins, Puritans, vol. 1, pp. 236-238. Collier, Eccl. Hist., 
vol. 2. § Punchard ; Soaines, p. 5. 



158 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



ed, " became alarmed lest the silenced ministers 
should do, by means of their pens, what he had 
striven to prevent them from doing by preaching — 
convert the masses to Puritanism." 

As the pulpit was chained, it was now deter- 
mined to muzzle the press. Accordingly, in 1566, 
the Star-chamber issued a decree forbidding the 
publication of any book which criticised the state 
ritual under severe penalties, requiring bonds for 
the observance of this extra-judicial statute from 
printers, stationers, and booksellers, and placing 
the press under the supervision of the government, 
" that those in authority might see how books de- 
meaned themselves."* 

The Puritans were now reduced to an unhappy 
strait. The pulpit was tabooed ; the press was pad- 
locked. They lived under the ban and at the peril 
of the law. But they met the exigencies of their 
time with that faith which is able to " move moun- 
tains." They believed in God. They actually be- 
lieved in him, just as much as if " the evidence of 
things not seen" stood demonstrated before their 
eyes. They calculated on God as astronomers cal- 
culate on the motions of the stars. Puritanism was 
incarnate faith. 

It was in the year 1566 that the Puritans divided 
into two classes.f Hopeless of any consideration 
inside of the established church, some earnest, de- 

* Hallarn, Cons. Hist. ; Stiype, Anhals ; Neale ; Fuller, 
f Neale, yol. 1, p. 252 ; Hopkins ; Burnet ; Strype's Grindal, 
p. 168. 



ST AE - CHAMBER DECREES. 159 



vout men determined, " after solemn consultation," 
that "it was their duty, in their present circum- 
stances, to break off from it, and to assemble as 
they had opportunity in private houses or elsewhere, 
to worship God in a manner which might not offend 
against the light of their consciences."* These were 
called " Separatists;" and they based their church- 
gOTernment upon the principle of the individual in- 
dependence of the churches.f 

But by far the greater number of the Puritans 
still adhered to the church of England, and continued 
to do so for upwards of a century longer. These 
" would not use the habits nor subscribe to the cer- 
emonies enjoined, as kneeling at the sacrament, the 
cross in baptism, the ring in marriage; but they 
held to the communion of the church, and willingly 
and devoutly joined in the common prayers. "J 

Remembering this statement of so careful and 
competent an observer as Strype, the assertion of 
Fuller, that the Puritans " accounted every thing 
from Rome which was not from Geneva, and endeav- 
ored in all things to conform the government of the 
church of England to the Presbyterian reforma- 
tion,'^ must be taken with some latitude, especially 
in view of the fact that the name " Puritan" covered 
all the dissenting evangelical sects of the time, the 
Baptist and the Lutheran, as well as the Genevan 
schools. 



* Neale, vol. 1, p. 252 ; Hopkins ; Burnet ; Strype's Grindal, 
p. 168. f Punehard, vol. 2, chap. 13, passim. 

% Strype, Life of Grindal, p. 168. § Fuller, vol. 2, p. 480. 



160 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



But whether .the Puritans were Separatists or 
church-of-England raen, the government harried 
them with equal rigor, greedy to clutch all to the 
bosom of its uniformity. 

During the soughing of this home tempest, Mary 
of Scots, expelled from her mountain-throne on ac- 
count of her opposition to the Reformation in Scot- 
land, came into England, and in 1568 claimed the 
protection of her royal cousin Elizabeth.* 

Scotland, through the zeal of a corps of indefat- 
igable preachers led by John Knox, had been gath- 
ered into the Protestant fold ; but the northern 
reformation was modelled after the Swiss church, 
and it stretched the right hand of fellowship to the 
English Puritans. f 

Ardently wedded to the old ways, Elizabeth 
could not but detest the Puritanism of Scotland; 
but rancorously as she hated the Scotch Puritans, 
she still more cordially detested the young and 
beautiful queen who now stood before her throne 
suing for protection. She had never forgiven Mary 
for assuming the arms of England and claiming the 
British crown on pretence of her bastardy 4 Now, 
as power was in her hand, vengeance was in her 
heart ; and from the hour of her first entrance into 
England, she had detained the queen of Scots in a 
gilded imprisonment which was baptized "protec- 
tion.'^ 

* Fuller, Burnet, Hume, 
f Neale, vol. 1, pp. 128, 129. 

% Chap. 10, p. 137. § Hume, vol. 1, p. 757, 



STAR-CHAMBER DECREES. 



161 



The European sky was at this time portentous. 
Behind each cloud lurked a stealthy thunderbolt. 
Komanism, reorganized by Jesuitism, was making its 
reaction assault upon the Protestant idea. France, 
torn by internecine strife, bled at every pore. Each 
sigh she heaved seemed destined to be her last. 
She wallowed in Huguenot gore. That awful suc- 
cession of puppet kings under the Machiavellian 
regency of Catharine cle' Medici, who shall ade- 
quately paint its horrors? It was the jubilee of 
pandemonium. 

The Netherlands, tortured by the cruel skill of 
the duke cl'Alva, shrieked in concert with unhappy 
France.* Large parts of Germany were dragooned 
into sullen submission to the Vatican. It was the 
carnival of persecution. The Continent, drunk with 
blood, reeled in a ghastly fete. 

In this wild foray upon the Eeformation, Eng- 
land was not forgotten. Popish emissaries, Protean, 
intriguing, ubiquitous, swarmed over the island, 
manipulating fanatics into conspirators. t The pop- 
ish party became an incarnate cabal. Jesuits were 
found under every disguise — scholars, physicians, 
merchants, conformist churchmen, Puritan preach- 
ers. True to their assumed character, they still 
preached ultra and absurd doctrines, whose tend- 
ency was to disgust and divide Protestants. Mut- 
tering their favorite shibboleth, " The end sanctifies 

* See Mr. Motley's graphic hii?tory of tlie persecution in the 
> T etherlands, in Rise of the Dutch Republic. 

j- Stripe, Life of Parker, vol. 1, p. 146 ; Hume, Fuller. 



162 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the means," tliey even married and took the oath of 
supremacy, when doing so promised to aid their 
machinations. There was no crime, strange, un- 
heard of, unthought of before, which their prolific 
brains did not hatch and galvanize into busy mis- 
chief. 

Books against Elizabeth and her government 
were scattered broadcast throughout Europe.* A 
papist league was formed, whose grand object was 
the dethronement of the maiden queen.t Roman- 
ist astrologers predicted the speedy occurrence of 
strange events. Popish conjurers juggled the igno- 
rant into believing that the death of Elizabeth and 
the overthrow of Protestantism might momentarily 
be expected by the miraculous intervention of the 
heavenly powers. £ 

" Having no place in England wherein to recruit 
themselves," the Romanists established colleges 
upon the Continent for the express purpose of edu- 
cating " missionaries " to effect the reconversion of 
their country.§ The first of these nurseries of priest- 
craft w r as erected at Douay, in Flanders. There 
were others at Rome, Valladolid, Ghent, St. Omers, 
and Madrid. || To these schools, where deceit and 
murder were taught as sanctified morality, the Ro- 
manist gentry of Britain dispatched their sons to be 
educated. The immense sums of money collected 

* Strype, Annals, vol. 1, p. 92 ; Neale ; Hopkins, 
•j- Ibid. Life of Parker, vol. 2, pp. 1-5. 
t Ibid. 

§ Fuller, vol. 2, p. 485 ; Neale, Collier, etc. 
|| Saunders, De Schisma Angfc, pp. 178, 189. 



STAB - CHAMBEB DECBEES. 163 



for the maintenance of these " colleges" transmuted 
them into El Dorados.* 

Scores of these "missionaries" now scoured 
England ;t and worked on by these arts, the sow- 
ers of the wind soon reaped the whirlwind. This 
pestilent agitation bred a rebellion. Thousands 
broke into open war. The whole North surged in 
insurrection.:}. Communion tables were demolished ; 
Bibles and service-books were torn in pieces ; the 
mass was exultingly chanted in the cathedral of 
Durham ; six thousand men-at-arms rallied under 
the earls of Northumberland and AY estmoreland, 
writing the liberation of Mary of Scots and the re- 
establishment of Romanism in the island as legends 
on their banners.§ 

This outbreak was finally quelled; some of the 
fanatics who stirred it were beheaded ; others es- 
caped beyond the sea.|| But it was a year of terror, 
and England shivered in the storm. 

Eor the purpose of giving new life to the reac- 
tionists, the pontiff, in 1570, excommunicated Eliz- 
abeth. IF But the beating of that Chinese gong star- 
tled no one. The brutum fulmen went unheeded. 
The European courts continued their correspond- 
ence with the anathematized queen ; and the do- 
mestic papists, paralyzed by the fate of the malcon- 

* Neale, vol. 1. Fuller, vol. 2, p. 490. 

f Neale, vol. 1, p. 142 ; Burnet. 

% Fuller, vol. 2, p. 484 ; Hopkins ; Strype. 

§ Punchard, vol. 2, pp. 465, 466. 

|| Hume, Fuller, Lingard, Hallam. 

H Neale, vol. 1, p. 142 ; Strype, etc. 



164: HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



tents in the recent emeute, nursed their rage, and 
cursed with bated breath and whispered humble- 
ness. 

Strange to narrate, all through these anxious 
and frightened months the persecution of the Puri- 
tans was kept afoot.* Silly England consented to 
fight with one hand tied behind her back. While 
she suppressed the Komanist insurrection with her 
left hand, she used her right to thrust the stanch- 
est adherents of the Reformation into Bridewell and 
Newgate prisons.f " Sink the island," cried Eliza- 
beth, "but perish Puritanism." It was the ludi- 
crous heroism of a petticoated Don Quixote. 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 112. f Ibid., chap. 4. 



"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 165 



CHAPTEE XII. 

"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 

About 1570 — before that, but more noticeably 
after — the governmental policy of England began to 
squint towards the fagot and the stake. Now for 
a dozen years the rigorous execution of the penal 
laws had made business for the civilians ; the eccle- 
siastical courts had been thronged ; thousands of 
honest men had been entangled in the meshes of the 
common and the canon law, and harassed in mind 
and broken in fortune* by the dilatory " circumlocu- 
tion offices," whose motto was, " How not to do it." 
Yet neither the cunning lawyers of Temple Bar, nor 
the severity of Star-chamber decrees, had been able 
to wheedle or to coerce the dissidents into outward 
uniformity. 

Indeed these measures, instead of bridging the 
chasm, widened it. Never before had the non-con- 
formists of all sects been so numerous and so mili- 
tant.f Until the recent Romanist insurrection, the 
papists had outwardly conformed ; but now they 
too separated openly, defiantly, and they intrigued 
and scoffed. :|: 

Elizabeth sighed, and glanced towards Smith- 
field. As a feeler, she determined to execute a few 

* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 497. Neale, vol. 1, p. 144. 

f Ibid. Hopkins, Hist, of the Puritans. i Ibid. 



166 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS 



Anabaptists ; if the country cried Amen to these 
antos dafe, then she might venture to strangle pa- 
pists and to burn Puritans.* This move was cun- 
ning. 

The Anabaptists, an innocent and evangelical 
sect, had long been the most hunted and hated of 
reformers. Not a nation in Europe but had anath- 
ematized them. Their distinctive tenet was the 
denial of baptism to infants. t They were indeed 
often charged with holding various dangerous doc- 
trines ; but their peculiar idea of baptism was of 
itself sufficient to bring upon them grievous pun- 
ishment. The Anabaptists were among the earliest 
dissenters ; the disciples of their creed were found 
among the Lollards as well as among the martyrs 
of the English Reformation.!' 

Through two centuries search after search had 
been made for them, proclamation after proclama- 
tion had been launched against them. And even 
in the Elizabethan epoch they were so unpopular, 
that partisans of all schools of theology looked with 
grim complacency upon their judicial murder. § 

Elizabeth then decided to initiate a regime of 
blood by kindling Anabaptist fires. Accordingly 
" of a congregation of Flemish refugees, meeting 
without Aldersgate Bars, London, and professing 
these principles, twenty-seven were imprisoned ; 
four, bearing fagots at St. Paul's Cross, recanted, 



* Collier. f Broadmead Kecords. Newell, p. 175. 

J Fox, Acts, etc., book 1, chap, 10. 

§ Perry, History of the Church of England, p. 11. 



"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 167 

and obtained their release; eight were banished; 
two were burned at Srnithfield."* 

Instantly an ominous growl swept across the 
island. England shouted an imperative veto. The 
paradox was seen ; and it was in relation to these 
unhappy victims of Protestant and royal persecu- 
tion that old John Fox addressed his famous letter 
to Elizabeth, begging that "the piles and flames of 
Srnithfield, so long ago extinguished, might not be 
revived, "t 

Headstrong as she was, the spinster queen had 
sense enough to see that she was foiled, and to 
acquiesce ; but she at once set in increased motion 
the whole pitiless machinery for the enforcement of 
uniformity. The civil code was made more strin- 
gent, and the legislation against Romanism was 
especially stinging and acute. 'J: Unquestionably a 
wiser policy might have been pursued even against 
the Vatican. But circumstances combined to pal- 
liate Elizabeth's extermination of the Jesuit and 
seminary priests, circumstances which did not shield 
her persecution of the reformers, always the cor- 
dial, loyal pillars of her menaced throne. The 
Eomanist powers of Europe intrigued to gain a 
domestic party in Britain pledged to act against 
the government. The queen was denounced, nay, 
excommunicated by the pope. Therefore Elizabeth 
might, with some justice, see an implacable enemy 
in every papist, and do her utmost to root out a 

« Newell, p. 176. t Ibid. 

\ Perry, p. 11. Neale, vol. 1, p. 113. 



163 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



pernicious and plotting creed, a faith which was a 
juggle, a religion which was a midnight conspirator. 

But the plain historic fact is, that Elizabeth's 
detestation of Puritanism even exceeded her hatred 
of popery. This crops out in her harangue to Mal- 
vesier, the French ambassador : " I will maintain 
the religion in which I was crowned and baptized; 
and I will suppress the papistical religion, that it 
shall not grow ; but as for Puritanism, I will koot 
it out, with the favorers thereof."* 

The truth should seem to be that the exagger- 
ated notions of authority and the love of pompous 
ceremony, which were among the most salient char- 
acteristics of the great queen, made her nearer akin 
than cousin to the pope ; and she was in much 
closer sympathy with the priest-caste of Kome than 
with the democratic tendency which her sagacious 
instinct led her to detect in Puritanism. 

In Elizabeth's eyes, the " unpardonable sin" was 
Puritanism. That, no services, no talents could 
extenuate ; its adherents must be forced upon their 
knees to cry, I have sinned, and to hiccough, Church 
and state. 

Even the martyrologist John Fox, one of the 
mildest and most lovable of men, was summoned 
by archbishop Parker to subscribe, " that the rep- 
utation of his piety might give the greater counte- 
nance to conformity." The old man produced the 
New Testament : " To this," said he, " I will sub- 
scribe." But when a subscription to the canons 

* Malvesier's Letters, cited by Strype in Annals, vol. 2, p. 5G8. 



"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 169 

was required of him, lie refused it, saying, " I have 
nothing in the church save a prebend at Salisbury, 
and much good may it do you if you will take it 
from me."- " However," says Fuller, "such respect 
did the bishops — most, formerly, his fellow-exiles — 
bear to his age, parts, and pains, that he continued 
in his place till the day of his death ;"f but even 
this illustrious Christian, shackled by his Puritan- 
ism, rose no higher in the church than a petty " pre- 
bend at Salisbury." 

It was in 1570 that the controversy between the 
Conformists and the Puritans assumed a new phase. 
Hitherto it had been largely a quarrel over forms — 
the habits, the cross in baptism, and kneeling at the 
Lord's supper ; now it broadened into more radical 
differ ences.J 

Thomas Cartwright, Margaret professor of di- 
vinity at Cambridge, " a courageous man, a popu- 
lar preacher, a profound scholar, and master of an 
elegant Latin style," was the chief of this new 
assault.§ 

Cartwright " was in high esteem in the univer- 
sity, his lectures being frequented by vast crowds 
of scholars ; and when he preached at St. Mary's, 
they were forced to take down the windows. "il 

This champion of Puritanism inveighed against 
what he considered the blemishes of the Established 
church, and he enforced in his lectures these sis 



* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 475. 
J Neale, vol. 1, p. 144. 
|| Neale, vol. 1, pp. 144, 145. 

PuritanB. 8 



f Ibid. 

§ Fuller, vol. 2, p. 503. 



170 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 

tenets : that the names and functions of archbish- 
ops and archdeacons ought to be abolished, as hav- 
ing no foundation in Scripture ; that the offices of 
the lawful ministers of the church ought to be re- 
duced to the apostolic institution — the bishops to 
preach and pray, the deacons to take charge of the 
poor ; that there ought to be an equality of all min- 
isters, each one to be chief in his own cure ; that 
ministers should be chosen by the people, not cre- 
ated by civil authority ; that ministers should be 
confined to their own parishes, not suffered to roam 
at large ; that each church should be governed by 
its own minister and presbyters. 45 " 

This radical departure from the English ritual 
created a profound sensation. Cartwright's propo- 
sitions were denounced as untrue and dangerous, 
while Cecil called upon the vice-chancellor of Cam- 
bridge to silence the innovator or to conrpel him to 
recant.f 

From this bold preaching grew a multitude of 
letters, lectures, and pamphlets. Finally, Cart- 
wright was expelled from the university, and driven 
beyond the sea by the malice of his foes.;|; While 
abroad he was chosen minister to the English mer- 
chants at Antwerp, and he carried on an epistolary 
correspondence with a number of noted divines in 
the Protestant universities of the Continent^ 

But the excitement stirred by these events was 



* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 144, 145. Newell, pp. 153, 154. 

f Ibid. t Strype ; Brook, Life of Cartwright. 

§ Ibid. 



"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 171 



now momentarily eclipsed by a newer wonder. It 
was reported on the streets that the queen was 
abont to consummate a Romanist marriage. First 
Anjou was said to be the chosen one ; then the 
hawkers of the news asserted that Alencon was the 
person ; but it was unanimously agreed that one of 
these two French princes had been selected as the 
husband of Elizabeth.* 

The hubbub was unprecedented. England pro- 
tested. Sir Philip Sidney wrote his royal mistress 
a spirited private remonstrance ;f and the excite- 
ment was increased by the publication of a pamph- 
let in which the French princes were truly painted 
as the incarnation of the most odious vices, and in 
which the projected marriage was denounced as " an 
impious and sacrilegious union between a daughter 
of God and a son of the devil. "J 

Elizabeth was terribly angered by this satire, 
and she caused its author, who was a brother-in- 
law of Cartwright, and a friend of the famous Spen- 
ser, one of the finest poets in English letters, to be 
tried in the Queen's Bench, and condemned to have 
his right hand smitten off by a butcher's knife and 
mallet.§ Page, the publisher, after suffering the 
same punishment, said firmly, pointing with his left 
hand to the amputated member on the scaffold, 
" There lies the hand of a true Englishman. "|| 

Frightened from her projected marriage by the 

* Mackintosh, Hist. Eng., vol. 3, p. 279 ; Lingard, Froude. 
t Lingard, vol. 4, p. 366. Strype, Life of Parker, bk. 4, ch. 2. 
t Ibid. §Ibid. || Ibid.; Newell, p. 156. 



172 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



popular murmurs, Elizabeth relapsed into still 
gloomier fanaticism. 

In 1572, the " Admonition to Parliament for the 
Reformation of Church Discipline" appeared. This 
was an echo of Cartwright's Cambridge lectures, 
and like its predecessors, it made a flutter in the 
dove-cote. Now again, as before, many pamphlets 
were bandied between the learned men of the re- 
spective parties ; and Cartwright, who had just 
returned from the Continent, contended in this 
Olympian game of words with Whitgift, a learned 
and eloquent divine, who was the champion of the 
Conformist party.* 

The question at issue was, " What is the fittest 
form of church government ?" 

The Puritans maintained that Parliament ought 
to establish by law a church discipline more agree- 
able to the Scripture model than the established 
one ; and in order to show what form they should 
prefer, they appended to the volume which opened 
the controversy the letters of Beza and Gaultier to 
Leicester and bishop Parkhurst, letters which fa- 
vored the continental order. f 

The Established church men grounded their 

argument on the ErastianJ principle that no form 

* Fuller, vol. 2, p. 503. Brook, Life of Cartwright. 
f Brook, Lives of the Puritans, vol. 2, pp. 185-190 ; Strype ; 
Neale. 

J Erastus was a German physician of the sixteenth century. 
His principle was that the church is to be recognized as simply a 
member of the general body called the state, and possessing no 
coercive power save through the arm of the civil magistrate. 
Newell, p. 158, note. 



' 'HOW NOT TO DO IT." 173 



of church government is laid down in Scripture, 
but that the form of worship is left indifferent.* 

The authors of the "Admonition" were flung 
into prison, where they lay for many months, and 
every effort was made by the government to seize 
their book, but in vain ; neither could its successors 
be strangled in their birth, for they could not be 
found. Secret presses multiplied Puritan books, 
and these were so firmly retained, despite a roj T al 
proclamation against them, that the seeds of thought 
and protest were sown broadcast throughout the 
furrows of the time.t 

The arbitrary action of the government made 
the tide set strongly against the bishops, for, aside 
from the merits of the case, in regard to which men 
might easily differ, the sentiment of fair-play, which 
lies at the bottom of every honest Saxon heart, was 
fatally offended. " If they did not fear discussion," 
said the impartial masses, " the bishops would not 
padlock free speech.'*' Thus, notwithstanding the 
acute, learned, and very able defence of the Eng- 
lish Establishment made by "Whitgift, assisted by 
Parker and his confreres, the government lost caste, 
beaten more by its own besotted policy than by the 
arguments of its keen and earnest opponents. 

At all events, it is certain that the universities, 
the metropolis, and the country at large, began to 
lean decidedly towards Puritanism. To this Strype 
bears sorrowing witness, informing us that, " not- 

* Strype, Life of Parker ; Newell, 
f Strype, Aimals, vol. 1, chap. 28. 



174 HISTOBY OF THE PURITANS. 



withstanding the opposition the Puritans met with 
from the queen and her commissioners, by her re- 
peated orders and commands, they yet got ground 
daily, and increased more and more, being favored 
by many in court and city."* 

The Parliament had long been willing to attempt 
something in favor of the Puritans. One of the 
members, Strickland, " a grave and ancient man of 
great zeal," had, in 1571, offered a bill for a further 
reformation in the church which he had supported 
in two powerful speeches. t He was, however, re- 
buked in the open house for his impudence in ven- 
turing to meddle with the royal prerogative ; and 
after the daily adjournment, Elizabeth cited the 
brave pleader before her council, and forbade him 
the Parliament house, t But this bold tyranny 
occasioned such a tumultuous debate, that the 
queen hastened to reverse her verdict. 

Strickland was no sooner restored to his seat 
than he moved that " a confession of faith should 
be published and confirmed by Parliament, as it 
was in other Protestant countries. "§ Another mem- 
ber, Norton, " a man wise, bold, and eloquent, stood 
up next," and supported Strickland's motion. || 

A committee was appointed, and a list of arti- 
cles was drawn up in substantial agreement with 
those already confirmed ; but several of the old 
articles were omitted in the parliamentary rubric. 

* Strype, Life of Parker, vol. 2, pp. 191, 192. 
f D'Ewes' Journal, pp. 117, 156. Strype, Ann., vol. 2, p. 93. 
\ Ibid Neale, vol. 1, p. 117. § Ibid. 

|| D'Ewes' Journal, p. 118. 



' -HOW NOT TO DO IT." 



175 



When the committee came to confer with the bish- 
ops, Parker asked why these had been stricken out. 
Sir Peter Wentworth, the great champion of civil 
and religious liberty in Elizabeth's reign, replied, 
" Because we have not yet examined how far they 
are agreeable to the word of God, having thus far 
confined ourselves chiefly to doctrines." The arch- 
bishop then remarked, "Surely you will refer your- 
selves wholly to us the bishops in these things." 
"No!" retorted Wentworth warmly; "no, by the 
faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing before we 
understand what it is, for to do so were to make 
you popes ; make you popes who list, for we will 
make you none."* 

These were brave words, and they show a vast 
improvement in the tone of English statesmanship 
since the lackey parliaments of Henry, Edward, 
and Mary assembled to record the whims of tyrant 
princes. As the French revolution was in the pages 
of Eousseau and Pascal long before it ran foaming 
through the streets of Paris, so the " great rebel- 
lion" scowled in these words of Peter Wentworth 
before it charged at Marston Moor and struck off a 
perjured prince's head. 

But these bills did not amount to much, except 
as an indication of the growing spirit of the com- 
mons ; for when they were presented to Elizabeth 
for her approval, the royal Jezebel " dashed" them, 
and they came to naught. t 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 147, 148. 

f Pmickard, vol. 2, p. 470. D'Ewes ; Strypc, Life of Parker, 



176 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



The Puritans next had recourse to the Convoca- 
tion ; but here they met with no sympathy, for this 
was the obsequious creature of the court.* 

In the Parliament of 1572, the Puritans made 
another effort to win recognition from the state. 
But Elizabeth, after the passage of a reformatory 
bill, " strangled it with her own hands ;" and then, 
deaf to the petition of the commons for redress, she 
prorogued the House without deigning to notice its 
prayer, flinging into the ears of the retiring mem- 
bers a severe reprimand for "their audacious, arro- 
gant, and presumptuous folly, in thus, by superflu- 
ous speech, spending much time in meddling with 
affairs neither pertaining to them nor within the 
capacity of their understandings, "f 

But while the English Xantippe was thus scold- 
ing Parliament, she was scourging the Puritans with 
severer weapons than the tongue. Cartwright was 
arrested and thrown into prison as " a preacher of 
sedition.''^ There he lay and suffered for weary 
months, despite the intervention of Lord Burleigh 
and the prayer of the king of Scots.§ After being- 
cuffed from jail to jail, browbeaten by mushroom 
prelates, and rated by ecclesiastical commissioners, 
he eventually retired to the island of Guernsey, 
where his later years were sj:>ent. 

Cartwright's letters show that he never was a 
separatist, but that his aim as a Puritan was to 

o Sparrow's Collections. Hopkins, Hist. Puritans. Fronde, 
f D'Ewes, Journal, p. 151 ; Brook. 

X Brook, Life of Cartwright ; Fuller. § Newell, p. 169. 



"HOW NOT TO DO IT." 177 



adjust the discipline of the Established church to 
what he esteemed the word of God.- Yet for this 
honest endeavor his career was blocked, his useful- 
ness was shackled, his fame was clouded, his con- 
stitution was broken by physical maltreatment, and 
his last years were imbittered by exile. Such was 
the garland which those unhappy times twined 
about the brow of enthusiasts for the truth. 

At this very time, while she was persecuting the 
Puritans in England, Elizabeth was aiding the pro- 
fessors of the self-same tenets by her influence, 
money, and arms in Scotland, France, and the Neth- 
erlands/}- And when in this same year of 1573, 
aghast England heard of the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, the queen shrouded her court in mourn- 
ing for the murdered Huguenots ; then, decked out 
in "the trappings and the suits of woe," she turned 
to complete the butchery of the Puritans. 

It is said that after the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew, the day was long remarkable for wet weather 4 

"Bartholomew bemoans with rain 
The Gallic Atlas therein slain, "§ 

runs the old couplet. Perhaps the sky wept as 
much over England's hypocrisy as over the fanat- 
ical brutality of frenzied France. 

* Newell, p. 69. f Perry, p. 13. 

t Fuller, vol. 2, p. 505. 

§ " Bartholomeus flet, quia Gallicus occubat Atlas." 



8* 



178 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NOTES BY THE WAY. 

tc Man," says Lamartine, " never fastens a chain 
about his brother's neck that God's own hand does 
not fix the yoke upon his own." Elizabeth, in at- 
tempting to girt the laws closer about the Puritans, 
almost choked conformity. 

Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, was 
just dead, and evangelical England breathed freer. 
That prelate did not then, nor has he since, lacked 
panegyrists ; but the main current of testimony 
tends to confirm the calm verdict of impartial his- 
tory, that Parker was a haughty, worldly, and cruel 
churchman, more zealous to coerce honest conscien- 
ces into the hypocrisy of apparent conformity, than 
active to garner souls into the heavenly kingdom.* 

The liberalists esteemed the accession of Ed- 
mund Grindal to the primacy to be another triumph. 
He was the close friend of the leading Puritans with- 
in the church ;f he had been an exile in the Marian 
age, and he was known to be a prelate of amiable 
temper and Christian principle. 

So situated, and standing by the open grave of 

* Hallam, Fuller, Newell, Strype, Neale, etc. Strype and Ful- 
ler can see no evil in Parker ; but the others estimate his charac- 
ter more justly. See also Collier and Hume. 

t Newell, p. 209. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



179 



" the most severe disciplinarian of Elizabeth's first 
hierarchy,"* the Puritans might moralize, "It is 
God's beneficent providence — death. When ideas 
have shaped themselves in a rigid mould, and be- 
come fossil, God takes off the weight of the dead 
men from their age, and leaves room for the new 
bud." 

Strengthened then by the death of Parker in 
1575, and by Grindal's piety, the devout men, both 
Puritans and Conformists, in the Established church, 
organized religious meetings which soon came to 
be called " Prophesyings;" a name suggested by 
Paul's words addressed to the Corinthian church : 
"Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may 
learn, and all may be comforted. "f 

Strange to say, a Protestant princess objected 
even to these useful and harmless convocations. 
"When they became popular, and were attended by 
numerous clergymen as well as distinguished lay- 
men, Elizabeth, who was offended at the number 
of preachers who gathered on these occasions, and 
who "did not like that the laity should neglect 
their secular affairs by repairing so frequently to 
chapel," invoked the civil authorities to suppress 
these "unlawful assemblies." :|; 

Learning that the " Prophesyings" had received 
the countenance of the bishops, that archbishop 
Grindal himself strongly befriended them, and that 

* Hallam, Cons. Hist, vol. 1, ch. 4. 

f 1 Corinthians 14:31. Fuller, vol. '3, p. 6. 

| Strype, Life of Grindal, book 2, chap. 2. 



180 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



tliey " were mucli used now throughout most of the 
dioceses,"* the meddlesome and impudent spinster 
whose caprice governed England, sent for her new 
primate, and " rated him soundly." " S'death," 
cried she in this unique concio ad clerum, " it is good 
for the church to have few preachers • three or four 
will suffice for a county. I like not these exhorta- 
tions ; commend me to the reading of the homilies ; 
'tis enough. The number of preachers must be 
abridged ; and I charge you, put down the ' Proph- 
esyings.' "t 

Grindal heard this mad tirade out ; then quit- 
ting the royal presence, went home and wrote Eliz- 
abeth a long and able letter, in which he informed 
her of the usefulness and the necessity of preach- 
ing, declared that the " Prophesjdngs " were sub- 
servient to holy living, affirmed that whereas be- 
fore the exercises there were not three able preach- 
ers in his diocese, now there were thirty fit to preach 
at Paul's Cross, and forty or fifty besides able to 
instruct their cures. Grindal concluded by assur- 
ing the queen that he could not, owing to the use- 
fulness of the exercises, suppress them without 
offending God. " I say with Paul," added he, " I 
have no power to destroy, only to build up ;" and 
with the same apostle, "I can do nothing against 
the truth, but for the truth. "% 

This admirable rebuke from the first ecclesias- 
tic in the kingdom so angered the petulant and vin- 

* Strype, Annals, vol. 2, p. 133, and on. 

f Strype, Grindal, book 2. % Ibid., Appendix, No. 10. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 181 

dictive queen, that she ordered Grindal to be con- 
fined to his house, and had him sequestered from 
his archiepiscopal functions for six months by a 
Star-chamber decree.* 

Thus peremptorily did Elizabeth act in a mat- 
ter purely religious, walking beyond the outermost 
verge of her sacrilegious supremacy, and tieing the 
hands of the primate of England himself when, in 
the honest performance of his episcopal duties, he 
ventured to argue down her idle whims. 

Although Burleigh and other statesmen endeav- 
ored to bend Grindal to obedience to the queen in 
this, the good prelate continued firm.t Then there 
was some talk of degrading him from his see ; but 
this was finally abandoned, because Elizabeth, like 
Pilate, " feared the people." But Grindal " walked 
under a cloud" through the rest of his life. " Bro- 
ken and feeble with grief," he became blind in 1582, 
whereon he resigned his primacy, surviving his lost 
honors but a few months. £ 

Grindal's unselfish devotion has immortalized 
his memory ; and it linked him by the kinship of 
suffering to the hearts of the Non-conformists, who 
were still more wickedly " meeted and peeled" 
under Elizabeth's Draconic code ; and this too de- 
spite the fact that he, like Parker, abandoned in 
their case, after a few essays, the legitimate meth- 
ods of persuasion for the severer logic of the laws.§ 
That " sweet Spenser" loved him is evinced by the 

* Strype, Grindal, Appendix, No. 10 ; Neale, Newell. 

t Newell, p. 213. % Ibid... Strype, etc. § Newell, p. 209. 



182 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



great poet's introduction of him under the anagram 
of his name, " Algrind" 

Upon the death of Grindal, says Hume, the 
queen determined " not to fall into the same error 
in her next choice ; and she named Whitgift, a zeal- 
ous churchman, who had already signalized his pen 
in controversy, and who, having in vain attempted to 
convince the Puritans by argument, was now resolv- 
ed to open their eyes by power, and by the remorse- 
less execution of the penal statutes. He informed 
her that the spiritual power lodged in the prelates 
was still insignificant ; and as there was then no 
ecclesiastical commission in force, he engaged her 
to issue a new one, more arbitrary than any of the 
former, and conveying more unlimited authority,"* 

But while the new primate was thus forging his 
thunderbolts, vital piety, smitten through Grindal 
from the very throne, lay torpid. Sir Robert Cot- 
ton, referring to the times of the " Prophesyings," 
says, "In those days there was an emulation be- 
twixt the clergy and the laity, and a strife whether 
of them should show themselves most affectionate 
to the gospel. Ministers haunted the houses of the 
worthiest men, where Jesuits now build their taber- 
nacles, and poor country chapels were frequented 
by the best in the shire. The word of God was 
precious, prayer and preaching went hand in hand, 
until Archbishop Grindal's disgrace brought the 
flowing of these good graces to a still water. "f 

* Hume, Hist, of Eng., Keign of Elizabeth. 
\ Strype, Life of Grindal, boolc 2, chap. 9. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



183 



Indeed, the condition of Britain at this epoch 
was most scandalous. The rotten morals of the 
saturnalia had been vomited into England by sick- 
ened Eome. Formal hypocrisy was baptized relig- 
ion. The earnest and devout men both in and out 
of the church were harassed and imprisoned. The 
Sabbath was openly blasphemed; it was a gala day, 
given up to riot, to gaming, to drunkenness.* Arch- 
bishop Parker was kiruself charged with " giving 
entertainments and f eastings chiefly on the Lord's 
day."t 

"Cabined, cribbed, confined'' by the severity of 
the High Commission and the narrow terms of uni- 
formity, the supply of preachers began to fail. The 
queen's wish was more than fulfilled ; for whole 
counties, starving for the bread of life, were without 
a single minister.:}: And under the court regime, 
those provided with preachers were not much better 
off, " most of the old incumbents being either plu- 
ralists, non-residents, or disguised papists, fitter to 
sport with the timbrel and pipe than to take God's 
book into their hands." In the county of Cornwall 
there were a hundred and forty of these clerical 
drones, not one of whom could compose a sermon ; 
robbed of their mass-book, they stood tongue-tied. § 
A petition presented to the Parliament of 1579-80 
says, that at least one half of the churches of Lon- 

* Strype, Fuller, Hopkins, Neale, etc. 
t Neale, vol. 1, p. 187. 

% Ibid., p. 198. McCullough, British Empire, vol. 1, p. 399. 
§ Ibid. 



184 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



don were unfurnished with curates, and scarcely one 
in ten of those nominally provided possessed cler- 
gymen who conscientiously served their parishion- 
ers.* 

" Yet at this very time," says Neale, " there was 
a rising generation of valuable preachers, ready and 
anxious for the ministry, if they might have been 
encouraged ; for in a supplication of some of the 
students of Cambridge about this time, they acknow- 
ledge that there were plenty of able and well-fur- 
nished men among them, but that those could not 
get into livings upon equal conditions ; while un- 
learned men, nay, the scum of the people, were pre- 
ferred before them. So that in this great want of 
laborers, they stood idle in the market-place all the 
day, being urged by the bishops to pledge conform- 
ity, and to approve that, as agreeable to the word 
of God, which with no safety of conscience they 
could accord unto."t 

Then beside these chafing neophytes stood the 
army of veteran ministers, deprived and silenced 
because they could not " take a false oath, and sub- 
scribe themselves slaves ;" agonizing to preach, yet 
standing gagged by statutes, unable to utter a word, 
and slowly dying of despair. 

Is it astonishing that morals and religion were 
at a low ebb in England ? Even Strype, always the 
willing panegyrist of Elizabeth when truth did not 
tie his honest pen, draws this sombre picture of the 

* Pimcliarcl, vol. 2, pp. 490, 491. 
f Ncale, vol. 1, pp. 198, 199. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



185 



situation : " The state of the church was now low 
and sadly neglected. The queen's own court was a 
harbor for epicures and atheists."* 

No wonder then if Elizabeth and her inquisito- 
rial satellites came, as Fuller confesses they did, to 
consider " all pious people as embraced under this 
nickname, £ Puritans,' "f and to hack indiscrimi- 
nately right and left, pinching conformists as read- 
ily as dissidents. 

Here again we summon Strype upon the witness- 
stand : " When it was ascertained that in several of 
the counties certain religiously disposed Conform- 
ists had contracted the habit of getting together on 
holy days, after dinner or supper, for conference and 
worship, the ecclesiastical commissioners cited the 
neighboring curates to explain why they did not 
forbid these ' unlawful assemblies.' " What they 
replied is not known; but on their return to their 
parishes, the dangerous meetings were suppressed. 

The parties thus dealt with made this declara- 
tion : " We do not favor or maintain any of the opin- 
ions of the Anabaptists, Puritans, or Papists, but 
would be glad to learn our duty towards God, our 
prince, and magistrates, towards our neighbors and 
our families, in such sort as becomes good, faithful, 
and obedient subjects. The occasion of our assem- 
blies on the holy days after supper was this : for that 
heretofore we have at divers times spent and con- 
sumed our holy days vainly, in drinking at the ale- 

* In Life of Parker, vol. 2, p. 204. 
t Fuller, vol. 2, p. 474. 



188 HISTOKY OF THE PUBITANS 



house and playing at dice, cards, and other vain pas- 
times, for the which we have been often blamed by 
our pastor ; so we thought it better to bestow our 
time in sober and godly reading the Scriptures, only 
for the purpose aforesaid and no other."* 

Yet the government would not rescind its veto. 
" The rulers of church and state thought it a less 
evil for men to spend their time on holy days in 
drinking and gaming than in 'unauthorized' meet- 
ings for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and confer- 
ence.'^ 

This did not occur in Spain, among the mutter- 
ers of the mass ; it did not take place in the Ro- 
manist Italy of the Borgias : these things happened 
in Protestant England ; and in the reign, not of 
Mary, but of Elizabeth Tudor. 

All great moral, all great political movements 
run easily, almost inevitably, into extremes, and 
breed fanaticism. In a community stirred and 
tossed by tumultuous excitement, it is always safe 
to prophesy that some minds will be unstrung and 
fanaticized. Men of vivid imagination, of specula- 
tive tendency, dreamers, will feel a strange exalta- 
tion, see visions, and seer-like, assume to lift the 
misty curtain of the future, and to foretell events. 

Upon this fact, miscalled "Conservatives" — 
men who, had they lived, at the time of the creation, 
would have cried with Cousin's lover of "the old 
ways," " Great God, what will become of Chaos?"— 

* Strype, Life of Parker, vol. 2, pp. 381-385 ; Neale ; Punchard. 
f Punchard, vol. 2, p. 502. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



187 



base arguments against reform. But extravagants 
are not caused by progress ; they are nature's pro- 
test against darkness. Extremists are men half 
awake, but whose eyes are not yet fully open, and 
they grope wildly in the dazzling sunshine. 

Already the English Reformation had adopted a 
misshapen sect called the " Famujsts,"* "worse in 
their practices than in their opinions ; for they 
grieved the Comforter, charging all their sins on 
God's Spirit for not*efTectually assisting them against 
themselves ; counting themselves as innocent as the 
maid forced in the field, crying out, and having none 
to help her."f 

Now, in the interstices of the controversy between 
the English Establishment and Puritanism, another 
hated sect cropped out; the " Bkownists "J began 
to grow. These sectaries accepted the articles of 

* One Nicolas, born in Amsterdam, first vented this doctrine 
in his own country in 1550. His followers termed themselves the 
" Family of Love. " See Fuller, vol. 2, p. 517, and on. Also Neale, 
Burnet, etc. f Fuller, vol. 2, p. 519. 

X "These people were called 'Brownists' from one Robert 
Brown, a preacher in the diocese of Norwich, descended of an an- 
cient and honorable family, and nearly related to the lord-treas- 
urer Cecil. He was educated at Corpus Christi college, Cambridge ; 
and he preached sometimes in Bennet church, where the vehe- 
mence of his delivery gained him reputation. He was first a school- 
master, then a lecturer at Islington ; but being a fiery, hot-headed 
young man, he went about inveighing against the discipline and 
ceremonies of the church, and exhorting the people by no means 
to comply with them." Neale, vol. 1, pp. 204, and on. This con- 
duct speedily brought Brown to the notice of the government. 
He was imprisoned ; released through Burleigh's influence ; sent 
home to his father ; dismissed by him from the family ; excom- 
municated ; pardoned ; given a church in Northamptonshire ; and 



188 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



faith of the English church, but they were narrow 
and rigid in their ideas of discipline.* Their own 
government was framed upon the apostolic model ; 
and it was not this that gave them a bad name. 
They were severe bigots, and renounced commun- 
ion with the Established church, which they de- 
nounced as no church, but a popish, anti-christian 
juggle, and with all other churches which did not 
exactly agree with their pattern.t 

Their chief crime was uncliaritahleness ; for they 
unchurched the whole Christian world on a question 
of mere form, Lutheran and Calvinist as well as the 
conforming churchmen. No one could be a follower 
of Christ unless he was a mutterer of their peculiar 
shibboleth. 

Broivnism was the counterpart of "Whitgift's 
rigid uniformity. The lesson which the prelates 
taught these sectaries learned, "not wisely, but 
too well." 

The principles of the "Bbownists" agreed in 
some respects with the rationale of Puritanism.;!" 
But with the impudent intolerance of that narrow 
sect the Puritans did not sympathize. They recog- 
nized the brotherhood of the Evangelicals ; they fel- 
lowshipped Lutherans and Calvinists ; they would 
gladly have fellowshipped the English Conformists, 
had not the bishops written " holier than thou " 

after a life of vicissitudes, he finally died in jail, where he had been 
imprisoned for assaulting a constable. Pagett's Heresiography ; 
Collier, Eccl. Hist., part 2, book 7; Strype, Annals, vol. 2, etc. 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 205, 20G. | Ibid. 

X Ibid., Newell, Hopkins, Strype, etc. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



189 



across tlie forehead of the church. Even the " Sep- 
aratists" did not deny that the English church was 
a true church, though they quarrelled with its cere- 
monial law. 

The government, like a true inquisitor, listened 
to every idle story of its scouts ; and when Eliza- 
beth learned that the Brownists held some of the 
tenets of Puritanism, she forgot that, since they 
subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles, they also 
agreed in some things with the bishops; so, anx- 
ious to father on the dissenters all obnoxious isms, 
she termed the Bkownists Puritans, as she had 
already the " Eamujsts," and anathematized them 
all through new statutes. Three men, convicted of 
scattering Brownest pamphlets through the king- 
dom, " were murdered under the forms of law 
and complacent bishops culled objectionable pas- 
sages from the tabooed books to prove the danger- 
ous tendency of Puritanism. t 

" The children of this world are, in their genera- 
tion, wiser than the children of light. "J "Koine 
understands, what no other church has ever under- 
stood, how to deal with enthusiasts. In some sects, 
particularly in infant sects, enthusiasm is permitted 
to be rampant. In other sects, especially in those 
long established and richly endowed, it is regarded 
with aversion. Kome neither submits to enthusi- 
asm nor proscribes it ; she uses it. She considers it 
as a great moving force, in itself neither good nor 

* Newell, p. 192 ; Fuller, Hopkins, Neale, Strype, Collier, etc. 
t Ibid. Luke 14:8. 



190 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



bad, but which may be so directed as to produce 
great good or great evil. She knows that when 
religious feelings have obtained the complete em- 
pire of the mind, they impart a strange energy; that 
they raise men above the dominion of pain and 
pleasure ; that obloquy becomes glory ; that death 
itself is contemplated only as the beginning of a 
higher and happier life. She knows that a person 
in this state is no object of contempt. He may be 
vulgar, ignorant, visionary, extravagant ; but he will 
do and suffer things which it is for her interest that 
somebody should do and suffer, yet from which calm 
and sober-minded men shrink. She accordingly 
enlists him in her service, assigns to him some for- 
lorn hope, in which intrepidity and impetuosity are 
more wanted than judgment and self-command, and 
sends him forth with her benediction and applause. 

"For a man thus minded there was no place 
within the pale of the Establishment. If he could 
not conform in every non-essential trine, he must 
be gagged. If he desired to be a teacher, he must 
begin by being a schismatic. His choice was soon 
made. A congregation was formed. A plain build- 
ing, with a desk and benches, was run up, and named 
Ebenezer or Bethel, and in a few weeks the church 
had lost by her narrowness a hundred families, not 
one of which entertained the least scruple about her 
articles, or possibly about her government, but who 
were driven to separate through affection for their 
pastor, or through disgust at his ill-usage. 

"Far wiser is the Roman polity. Even for 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



191 



female agency there is a place in her system. To 
devout women Rome assigns spiritual functions, 
dignities, and magistracies. In most Protestant 
countries, if a noble lady is moved by more than 
ordinary zeal for the propagation of religion, the 
chance is that, though she may disapprove of no 
one doctrine of the established church, she will end 
by giving her name to a new schism. If a pious 
and benevolent woman enters the cells of a prison 
to pray with the most unhappy and degraded of 
her sex, she does so without any authority from the 
church. No line of action is traced out for her; 
and it is well if the ordinary does not complain of 
her intrusion, and if the bishop does not shake his 
head at such irregular benevolence. At Rome, the 
countess of Huntingdon would have a place in the 
calendar as St. Selina, and Mrs. Fry would be foun- 
dress and first superior of the Blessed Order of Sis- 
ters of the jails. 

" Place Ignatius Loyola at Oxford. He is cer- 
tain to become the head of a formidable secession. 
Place J ohn Wesley at Rome. He is sure to become 
the first general of a new society devoted to the 
interests and honor of the church. Place St. The- 
resa in London. Her restless enthusiasm ferments 
into madness, not un tinctured with craft. She 
becomes a prophetess, the mother of the faithful, 
holds disputations with the devil, and issues sealed 
pardons to her adorers. Place Joanna Southcote 
at Rome. She founds an order of barefooted Car- 
melites, every one of whom is ready to suffer mar- 



192 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



tyrdom for the clmrcli; a solemn service is conse- 
crated to her memory ; and her statue, placed over 
the holy water, strikes the eye of every stranger 
who enters St. Peter's."* 

Now, whether we fully accept this philosophy 
or not, enough of it is true to prove this, that Prot- 
estantism cannot afford, in its conflict with Satan, 
to throw away as despicable any useful agencies ; 
and that the church militant should be as cunning 
to save souls, as sinful human nature is to waste and 
destroy them. 

* Macauley, Essay on Banke's History of the Popes, Edinburg 
Review, October. 1840. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOES. 



193 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

THE LAST OF THE TUDOES. 

The lapse of. time wrought no alleviation in the 
persecution of the Puritans. Rigid coercion was 
still the motto and the aspiration of the govern- 
ment.* One generation bequeathed to another the 
same fatal legacy of patient suffering for conscience' 
sake. 

But England at large did not sympathize with 
the arbitrary measures of the court. A silent rev- 
olution was maturing. Many ministers, banished 
from the pulpit, were welcomed as domestic chap- 
lains and private tutors into the families of the 
middle classes and the gentry. Here they were 
protected against oppression, and in this seclusion 
they found leisure to imbue the rising spirits of the 
epoch with their own hatred of tyranny, and passion 
for religious and political liberty. t 

It was in these nurseries that the cradle of the 
" great rebellion " was rocked. 

Yet, singularly enough, throughout the reign of 
Elizabeth there was riot one Puritan emeute. Though 
banned and hunted, scourged and starved and burn-j 
ed, they never once were driven to rebel. Obeying" 
their Master's requisition, when smitten upon one 
cheek, they turned the other also.f 

a Newell, p. 185 ; Hopkins, Strype. f Ibid. 

J Matthew 5 : 39. 

Puritans. 9 



194 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



But if the Puritans were patient, the Romanists 
were not. No sooner was the cobweb of one plot 
swept clown than they spun another. " They dif- 
fered as hot and cold poison ; the Jesuits more 
active and pragmatical, the seculars more slow and 
[heavy, but both maintaining treacherous princi- 
ples, destructive to the commonwealth."* 

In 1586 the papists were peculiarly active. 
Elizabeth's recent execution of the queen of Scots 
had stirred the Vatican to venomous rage.f The 
Romanists of Europe determined to make one gi- 
gantic effort to strangle English Protestantism. 
Spain was selected as the avenger of the faith. 
This was fit. The crusades had been merely an 
episode in the history of other nations. Her whole 
existence had been a crusade. It was proper, there- 
fore, that Spain should lead this assault. The "In- 
vincible Armada " was launched.:]: 

" Now," says Euller, " began that fatal year, 
generally foretold that it would be wonderful, as it 
proved no less. Whence the astrologers fetched 
their intelligence, whether from heaven or hell, 
from other stars, or from Lucifer alone, is uncer- 
tain. This is most certain, that their prediction, 
though hitting the mark, yet missed their meaning 
who both first reported and most believed it. 

" Out came this invincible navy and army, per- 
fectly appointed for both elements, water and land, 
to sail and march complete in all warlike equipage, 

Fuller, vol. 3, p. 152. 

f Hume, Neale, Burnet. } Ibid. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOES. 195 



so that formerly, with far less provision, they had 
conquered another world. Mighty was the bulk of 
their ships, the sea seeming to groan under them, 
being a burden to it as they went, and to them- 
selves as they returned, with all manner of artillery, 
prodigious in number and greatness, so that the 
report of their guns does still and ought ever to 
sound in the ears of the English, not to fright them 
with any terror, but to fill them with deserved 
thankfulness. 

" It is said of Sennacherib, coming against Jeru- 
salem with his numerous army, 'By the way that 
he came shall he return, and shall not come into 
this city, saith the Lord.'* As the latter part of 
this old prediction was verified here, no Spaniard 
setting foot on English ground under other notion 
than a prisoner, so God did not them the honor to 
return the same way; who coming by south-east, a 
way they knew, went back by south-west, a way 
they sought, chased by our ships past the forty- 
seventh degree of northern latitude, then and there 
left to be pursued after by cold and hunger. 

" Thus having proved the English valor in con- 
quering them, the Scotch constancy in not relieving 
them, the Irish cruelty in barbarously butchering 
them, the small reversion of this great navy which 
came home might be looked upon by religious eyes 
as relics, not for the adoration, but instruction of 
their nation hereafter, not to account any thing in- 
vincible which is less than infinite."^ 

* 2 Kings 19 : 33. t Fuller, vol. 3, p. 97. 



196 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



Camden and others have complained that, at 
this time, while England was under arms to defeat 
the Spaniard, the Puritans were factious, "dispers- 
ing pamphlets against the church and the prelates 
in the height of a common danger."* But it seems 
that these writings went merely to show that "the 
danger of the return of popery, of which all men 
were then apprehensive, arose largely from stop- 
ping the mouths of those ministers who were most 
zealous against it. It had been easy at that time 
to have distressed the government, but the Puri- 
tans on both sides of the Tweed were more afraid 
of the triumph of Pome than their adversaries. 
Those in Scotland entered into an association to 
assemble in arms, at what time and place their 
king should require, to assist the queen of England 
against the common foe,t while their brothers in 
London seized the opportunity to petition the 
queen to release their preachers, that the people 
might be better instructed in the duty of obedience 
to their civil governors, and not be left a prey to 
priests and Jesuits, who were traitors to her maj- 
esty and to the state. But Elizabeth returned no 
answer ; she was content to jeopard the Peforma- 
tion rather than relieve the Puritans. J 

Through these eventful years Sunday was much 
profaned, by the encouragement of plays and sports 
in the evening, and sometimes in the afternoon. 

& "Ut externo bello sic etiam interne- schismate hoc tempore 
laboravit Anglia, " etc. Camden. f Hume, Lingard, etc. 

X Neale, vol. 1, p. 259. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOES. 197 



On one occasion a Puritan divine, in a sermon be- 
fore the university of Cambridge, impeached the 
lawfulness of these games, on which he was cited 
before the vice-chancellor. Here the preacher 
maintained that the Sabbath ought to be observed 
by an abstinence from all worldly business, and 
spent in works of piety and charity, though he did 
not apprehend that Christians were bound to the 
strictness of the Jewish precepts.* 

" The Parliament," says Neale, " had taken this 
matter into consideration, and passed a bill for the 
better and more reverent observance of the Sab- 
bath, which the speaker of the Commons recom- 
mended to the queen in an elegant speech. But 
her majesty refused to sign it, under pretence of 
not suffering the Parliament to meddle with mat- 
ters of religion, which she considered her sole pre- 
rogative. However, the thing appeared so reason- 
able, that without the sanction of a law the idea 
grew into esteem with all sober persons."f 

A few years later the Sabbatarian controversy 
was again kindled. A Puritan pamphlet was pub- 
lished, in which it was urged that morality required 
the reservation of a seventh part of the time for 
worship ; that Christians were bound to rest upon 
Sunday as much as the Jews were on the Mosaical 
Sabbath, the commandment of rest being moral and 
perpetual, and that therefore it was not lawful to fol- 
low studies or worldly business on that day, nor to use 
such recreations as were proper through the week4 
* Neale, vol. 1, p. 249. f Ibid. % Ibid > P- 298 - 



198 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



" This book had a wonderful spread among the 
people, and wrought a mighty reformation ; so that 
the Lord's day, which used to be profaned by inter- 
ludes, May-games, morrice-dances, and other gay 
sports, began to be kept more precisely. All the 
Puritans fell in with this rule, and distinguished 
themselves by spending that part of sacred time in 
public, family, and private acts of devotion, which 
the governing clergy exclaimed against as a re- 
straint of rational liberty. 

" Archbishop Whitgift called in all the copies 
of this pamphlet, by his letters and officers at syn- 
ods and visitations, and forbade it to be reprinted. 
The Lord Chief-justice Popham did the same, both 
of them declaring that the Sabbath doctrine tallied 
neither with the doctrine of the church, nor with 
the laws and order of the kingdom ; that it dis- 
turbed the peace of the commonwealth and of the 
church, tending to sedition in the one and to schism 
in the other;"* spite of all which the book was still 
read privately, and in greater demand than before 
the governmental raid upon it.f 

The year 1591 was rendered memorable by the 
new phase which the controversy between Puritan- 
ism and the churchmen then put on. The occasion 
of this change of base was a disputation between 
two famous clergymen. Fuller has left so quaint 
an account of this matter, that we subjoin, but 
somewhat abridge it : 

"Now began the heat and height of the sad 
* Nealc, vol. 1. p. 298. t Ibid, p. 299. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOBS. 



199 



contest between Richard Hooker, master, and Wal- 
ter Travers, lecturer, of the Temple. We will be 
larger in the relating thereof, because we behold 
their actions, not as the deeds of private persons, 
but as the public champions of their party. Now 
as an army is but a champion diffused, so a cham- 
pion may be said to be an army contracted. The 
prelatical party wrought to the height in and for 
Hooker ; nor was the puritanical power less active 
in assisting Travers ; both sides being glad that 
they had gotten two such eminent leaders, with 
whom they might engage with such credit to their 
cause. 

" Hooker was born in Devonshire, bred in Ox- 
ford, one of a solid judgment and great reading ; 
yea, such the depth of his learning, that his pen 
was a better bucket than his tongue to draw it out ; 
a great defender, both by preaching and writing, of 
the church of England. Spotless was his conver- 
sation ; and though some dirt was cast, none could 
stick on his reputation. 

" Travers was brought up in Trinity college, 
Cambridge, where meeting with some discontents, 
he took occasion to travel beyond seas, and coming 
to Geneva, contracted familiarity with Beza and 
other foreign divines, with whom he by letters con- 
tinued correspondence till his death. Then return- 
ed he, and commenced bachelor of divinity in Cam- 
bridge ; and after that passed beyond sea again, 
and at Antwerp was ordained minister by the pres- 
bytery there. After some time spent in preaching 



200 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



with. Cartwriglit unto the English factory of mer- 
chants at Antwerp, he at last came over into Eng- 
land, and for seven years together became lecturer 
in the Temple, refusing all presentative preferment, 
to decline subscription, and lived domestic chaplain 
in the house of the Lord-treasurer Cecil, being tutor 
for a time to Robert his son, afterwards earl of Sal- 
isbury. Although there was much heaving and 
shoving at him, as one disaffected to the discipline, 
yet God's goodness, his friend's greatness, and his 
own honesty, kept him, but with much difficulty, in 
his ministerial employment. 

" Yea, so great grew the credit and reputation 
of Travers, that he and Cartwriglit were solemnly 
sent for to be divinity professors in the university 
of St. Andrew's, in Scotland. This proffer both 
refused, with return of their most affectionate 
thanks. In plain truth, they were loath to leave, 
and their friends were loath to be left by them, con- 
ceiving their pains might as well be bestowed in 
their native country ; and Travers quietly continued 
lecturer at the Temple till Hooker became master 
thereof. 

" Hooker's voice was low, stature little, gesture 
none at all, standing stone-still in the pulpit, as if 
the posture of his body were the emblem of his 
mind, immovable as his opinions. Where his eye 
was left fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed 
at the end of his sermon. In a word, the doctrine 
he delivered had nothing but itself to garnish, it. 
His style was long and pithy, driving on a whole 



THE LAST OF THE TUDORS. 201 



flock of clauses before lie came to the close of a 
sentence. So that when the copiousness of his 
style met not with proportionable capacity in his 
auditors, it was unjustly censured as perplexed, 
tedious, and obscure. His sermons followed the 
inclination of his studies, and were for the most 
part on controversies and deep points of school- 
divinity. 

"Travers' utterance was graceful, gestures plaus- 
ible, matter profitable, method plain, and his style 
carried in it indolem pietatis, 'a genius of grace' 
flowing from his sanctified heart. Some say that 
the congregation in the Temple ebbed in the fore- 
noon and flowed in the afternoon, and that the au- 
ditory of Travers was far the most numerous — the 
first occasion of emulation between them. But 
both were too wise to take exception at such 
trifles. 

" Here might one on Sundays have seen almost 
as many writers as hearers. Not only young stu- 
dents, but even the gravest benchers, such as Sir 
Edward Coke and Sir James Altham then were, 
were not more exact in taking instructions from 
their clients, than in writing notes from the mouths 
of these preachers. The worst was, that though 
joined in affinity — their nearest kindred being 
joined together — Hooker and Travers acted on dif- 
ferent principles, and clashed one against another; 
so that what Hooker delivered in the forenoon, 
Travers confuted in the afternoon. At the build- 
ing of Solomon's temple, ' neither hammer nor axe 
9* 



202 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



nor tool of iron was heard therein;'* whereas, alas, 
in this Temple not only much knocking was heard, 
but, which was worse, the nails and pins which one 
master-builder drove in were driven out by the 
other. To pass by lesser differences between them 
about predestination, Hooker maintained that the 
church of Rome, though not a pure and perfect, 
yet is a true church ; so that such as live and die 
therein, upon repentance of all sins of ignorance, 
may be saved. Travers maintained that the church 
of Rome was no true church ; so that such as live 
and die therein, holding justification by works, can- 
not be said by the Scriptures to be saved. 

" Thus much disturbance was caused ; and here 
Archbishop Whitgift interposed his power, and 
silenced Travers from preaching either in the Tem- 
ple or anywhere else. It was laid to his charge 
that he was no lawful ordained minister according 
to the church of England ; that he preached here 
without license ; that he had broken the order made 
in the seventh year of her majesty's reign, wherein 
it was provided that erroneous doctrine, if it came 
to be publicly taught, should not be publicly refut- 
ed, but that notice thereof should be given to the 
ordinary, to hear and determine such causes. 

" As for Travers' silencing, many who were well 
pleased with the deed done, were offended at the 
manner of doing it ; for all the congregation on a 
Sabbath in the afternoon were assembled, their 
attention prepared, the cloth, as I may say, and 

* 1 Kings G : 7. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOKS. 203 



napkins were laid, yea, the guests were set, and 
their knives drawn for their spiritual repast, when 
suddenly, as Travers was going into the pulpit, a 
sorry fellow served him with a letter, prohibiting 
him to preach any more. In obedience to author- 
ity — the mild and constant submission whereunto 
won him respect with his adversaries — Travers 
calmly signified -the same to the congregation, and 
requested them quietly to depart to their chambers. 
Thus was our good Zacharias struck dumb in the 
Temple, but not for infidelity. Meantime his audi- 
tory, pained that their pregnant expectation to hear 
him preach should prove so publicly abortive, and 
sent sermonless home, manifested a variety of pas- 
sion, some grieving, some fuming, some murmur- 
ing ; and the wisest sort, who held their tongues, 
shook their heads, as disliking the managing of the 
matter. 

" Travers addressed himself by petition to the 
lords of the Privy-council, where his strength lay, 
as Hooker's in the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
the High Commission, grievously complaining that 
he was punished before he was heard, silenced — by 
him apprehended the heaviest penalty — before sent 
for, contrary to equity and reason : 4 The law con-, 
demning none before it hear him, and know what 
he hath done.'* 

* John 7 : 51. "To the exception against the lawfulness of his 
ministry, he pleaded that the communion of saints allows ordina- 
tion legal in any Christian chnrch. Orders herein are like de- 
grees ; and a doctor graduated in any university hath his title and 
place granted hiin in all Christendom. For want of license to 



204 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



" The council-chamber was much divided about 
Travers' petition. All Whitgif t's foes were ipso facto 
made Travers' favorers; besides, he had a large 
stock of friends on his own account. But Whit- 
gift's finger moved more in church affairs than all 
the hands of all the privy-councillors besides ; and 
he was content to suffer others to be believed — and 
perchance to believe themselves — great actors in 
church government, while he knew he could and 
did do all things himself therein. 

" Thus Travers, notwithstanding the plenty of 
his potent friends, was overborne by the archbish- 
op, and as he often complained, could never obtain 
to be brought to a fair hearing. But his grief hereat 
was something abated when Adam Loftus, arch- 
bishop of Dublin and chancellor of Ireland, his an- 
cient colleague in Cambridge, invited him over to 
be provost of Trinity college in Dublin. Embracing 
the motion, over he went, accepting the place ; and 
he continued some years therein, till discomposed 
by their civil wars, he returned into England, and 
lived here many years very obscurely — though in 
himself a shining light — as to the matter of out- 
ward appearance. Sometimes he did preach, rather 
when he durst than when he would ; debarred from 
all cure of souls by his non-conformity. Yet had 

preach, he pleaded that he was recommended to this place of the 
Temple by two letters of the bishop of London, the diocesan 
thereof. His anti-preaching in the afternoon, against what was 
delivered before, he excused by the example of Paul, who 1 gave 
not place to Peter, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel 
might continue among them.'" Gal. 2 : 5. Fuller, vol. 3, p. 130. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOES. 205 



he Agur's wish, ' neither poverty nor riches,' though 
his enough seemed to be of shortest size. It mat- 
ters not whether men's means be mounted, or their 
minds descend, so it be that both meet, as here in 
him, in a comfortable contentment."* 

From this narrative it should seem that, even so 
early as the year 1591, the question at issue be- 
tween Puritanism and the Establishment had radi- 
cally changed. It was no longer a dispute about 
the accidentals of bishops ; it began to broaden 
into a quarrel upon fundamentals. 

"This also," says a recent churchman, "was 
the course which the argument took on the church 
side. The church theologians gradually changed 
their ground, so that there is a wide difference 
between the school of Whitgift and Hooker, and 
that of Bilson, Hall, and Laud. At first all that 
was contended for was, that episcopacy was per- 
missible, and not against the Scriptures ; that it 
was a church government ancient and allowable. 
This was held by Jewel, Whitgift, Cooper, and oth- 
ers ; but these divines did not venture to urge its 
exclusive claims, or to connect the succession with 
the validity of the sacraments."t 

In the reign of Elizabeth, remarks this same 
historian, " the real point at issue was not a' ques- 
tion of conscience, but whether Puritans should be 
suffered to hold preferment in the church in open 
defiance of the requirements of the law. "J He then 

* Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 124-132. 

t Perry, Hist, of Cli. of Eng., p. 19. % Ibid., p. 17. 



206 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



proceeds to say that " the Puritan clergy are fully 
chargeable with having shown a bitter and litigious 
spirit;" that, "taking as indulgent a view as possi- 
ble of them, it cannot be denied that they were em- 
inently provoking ;" that " they fought factiously, 
and they fought unfairly ;" and that " their steady 
obstinacy required and excused the severity of 
Whitgift."* 

When this historian looked back across two 
hundred years to scrutinize the most momentous 
page of our English annals, he was either blinded 
by partiality, or else, under the influence of a dose 
of hellebore, he really dozed while he seemed to 
see. 

No ; his statement does not cover what lawyers 
call the gist of the great quarrel. The question at 
issue was, whether or not conscientious non-conformity 
in tilings which the imposers held indifferent, but which 
the Puritans esteemed vitally injurious, should bar 
Christians from the right to worship God. 

It is easy to say that " ministers declining to 
conform might retire from the church, "f But this 
latitude Elizabeth would not allow, as witness the 
history of her whole reign. All non-conformists, 
whether within or without the church, were harried 
with indiscriminate fierceness. The possibility of 
independence was not recognized. The govern- 
ment drove all men by statute into the bosom of 
the Establishment, and then compelled them by 
penal legislation to subscribe. Dissenters were 

* Perry, pp. 16, 17, passim. f Ibid., p. 17. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOKS. 207 



outlawed. Every weapon that wit could devise 
and that ingenuity could shape was employed to 
coerce consciences. Men were gagged, starved, 
and burned into uniformity. So searching was the 
proscription, that a scholar might not obtain a 
license to teach school without previous subscrip- 
tion.* Therefore it was as dangerous for a papist 
to mutter mass, or for a separatist to exhort, as it 
was for a non- conforming churchman, standing 
within the temple, "to hint a fault, and hesitate 
dislike." 

So idle is it to run a muck at the Puritans be- 
cause they did not all secure peace, " when there 
was no peace," by becoming " come-outers" at the 
commencement. 

Besides, in the infancy of the Establishment it 
embraced two sorts of reformers. One class clung 
tenaciously to the old ways in points of discipline, 
and pleaded usage and habit in their behalf. The 
other class loved the church just as dearly, but they 
yearned after what they esteemed a simpler and 
more scriptural pattern of church government. 
Surely there was here no occasion for gags and 
autos da fe. It was a case for arguments, not for 
executioners. The Establishment was still plastic, 
had not yet hardened into " the gristle and bone of 
manhood," if we may borrow Burke's phrase. While 
there was a chance that the reformers might succeed 
in moulding the nascent discipline into conformity 
to their convictions, they were neither "factious" 
* Newell, p. 185 ; Hopkins ; Neale, etc. 



208 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



nor " unfair " in struggling earnestly to achieve a 
result which they honestly believed to be momen- 
tously important. But when the battle had gone 
hopelessly against them within the Establishment, 
then it was time to think of separation ; and when 
convinced of this, they did come out and unite with 
the elder separatists, as we shall see. 

It may be remarked en passant, that, had a little 
latitude been permitted at the outset, the gulf would 
have been bridged; no Curtius need have flung in 
his body in sad after-years in a vain attempt to fill 
up the chasm. 

The historian upon whom we have been animad- 
verting has himself penned these weighty words : 
" History can furnish no instance of ecclesiastical 
persons wielding temporal power usefully and prof- 
itably for their own character and the best interests 
of others. At any rate, the history of this period 
seems charged with solemn warning, and may be 
held, not unreasonably, to prove that, for a church 
to be in alliance with the state with safety and profit, 
it must submit to be intrusted with but a very lim- 
ited amount of actual power ; and that the full ex- 
ercise of ecclesiastical discipline can never coexist 
without peril with the position of a church upheld 
and established by law."* 

The later years of Elizabeth's reign were com- 
paratively calm.t The queen, broken by age, wea- 
ried by care, sorrowing for her beheaded favorites, 

* Perry, p. 66. 

f Fuller, vol. 3, p. 152 ; Hume, Froude, Burnet. 



THE LAST OF THE TUDOBS. 209 



had lost much of her old hauteur ; she had no heart 
to persecute.* The Scottish king, who was heir to 
the crown, had been bred a Presbyterian, and this 
made the bishops cautious of acting with their pris- 
tine rancor against a party with whom the incom- 
ing monarch was identified. t The Puritans, tired, 
but watchful, " reposed themselves in a sad silence,"' 
believing that 

' 1 They also serve who only stand and wait. " 

At length the event occurred which England sat 
breathlessly awaiting. On the 24th of March, 1603, 
the great queen lay dead. The proud mistress of 
the sea-girt island, the pincher of consciences, the 
trampler on the fundamental law of liberty — Nemo 
tenetur seipsum prodere — was herself summoned be- 
fore the bar of the infinite Star-chamber Court. 
The muse of history closed and sealed the record 
of Elizabeth's reign. 

* Burnet's Own Times. f Neale, vol. 1, p. 308. 



210 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE XY. 

THE PEDANT KING. 

The crown of England now passed from the 
house of Tudor by escheat, and it was grasped by 
the Stuarts, the Bourbons of British politics. James 
I. stooped to lift the sceptre from the grave of Eliz- 
abeth. He was the son of poor Mary Stuart, and 
the great-grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter of 
Henry VII., who had married the Scottish king in 
the preceding century." On the failure of the male 
line, his hereditary title was of course clean, though 
the most eminent of the English constitutional his- 
torians argues elaborately that the Stuarts' claim 
was based less upon abstract right than on the tacit 
popular consent.t 

James had reigned in Scotland from his infancy 4 
He brought with him into England a wife and three 
children. The eldest of these children did not live 
to reach his majority ; the second, a daughter, mar- 
ried abroad ; and the other was the famous Prince 
Charles, who was one day to lose his head under 
the revolutionary hatchet of the commonwealth. 

The new king had been bred in the strictest 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 120. f HaHam, Con. Hist., chap. 6. 

% Caldenvood, True Hist. Church of Scotland, p. 256 ; Neale ; 
Perry. 



THE PEDANT KING. 



211 



school of Presbyterianisra, and he was steeped to 
the lips in oaths to maintain the Calvinistic princi- 
ples.* He had subscribed the " Solemn League and 
Covenant;" and recently, standing in a general as- 
sembly at Edinburgh, with bonnet off and hands 
uplifted, he had " praised God that he was king of 
the Scottish church, the purest kirk in the world. "t 

On the accession of such a monarch, the Puri- 
tans could not but be jubilant. "Now," cried they, 
as they met in the market-place or congratulated 
each other on the side-walk, "now we may take 
Simeon's prayer upon our lips. We have a king 
who will at least ungag the pulpit and abate the 
rigor of the laws which ban our party." 

But James' disposition had taken a strong con- 
trary bias. " The more he knew of Puritanism, the 
less favor he bore it. He had remarked in the Scot- 
tish church a violent tendency towards republican- 
ism, and a zealous attachment to civil liberty, prin- 
ciples nearly allied to that religious enthusiasm by 
which its members were actuated. In his capacity 
of monarch and in his role of theologian he had ex- 
perienced the little complaisance which the Puri- 
tans were disposed to show him ; while they con- 
trolled his commands, disputed his pet tenets, and 
to his face, before assembled Scotland, censured 
his government and his personal behavior. This 
was what his monarchical pride could never thor- 

* Caldenvood, True Hist, Church of Scotland, p. 25G ; Neale ; 
Perry. 

f Neale, vol 1, p. 318. Calderwood. 



212 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



oughly digest,""* and lie came to hate his reproving 
Nathan. 

He was no sooner firmly seated on his new 
( throne than, reflecting on these things, he decided 
to give the bishops the right hand of fellowship, 
and to flank Puritanism by- deserting it.t This 
course was made easier b} T the chorus of gross adu- 
lation with which the bishops greeted him. J The 
vainest of men, his self-conceit was tickled by the 
most hyperbolical compliments. The most pedan- 
tic of kings, his weakness was pampered by the 
most lavish encomiums. James had the stomach 
of an ostrich for praise ; no panegyric was too gross 
for him to swallow. In Scotland he had been curb- 
ed; in England he was given loose reign. Sycho- 
phancy, so new and so fascinating, quite won his 
heart. 

Of course James had no honest religious princi- 
ples. North of the Tweed he was a Presbyterian, 
because he dared be nothing else. What he termed. 
kingcraft, the art of dissimulation, the science of 
appearance, the finesse of empty show, of which he 
was profound master, led him to frequent the kirk 
in Scotland, to become a rigid churchman in Eng- 
land, and it would have made him a mutterer of the 
mass at Rome.§ Indeed Sir Francis Walsingham, 
who had studied him closely, and who kept his ubi- 
quitous spies at H^yrood, had come to the conclu- 
sion that " the king was either inclined to turn Pa- 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 123. f Perry, p. 28. 

X Ibid., p. 30. § Mac alley's Miscellaneous Essays. 



THE PEDANT KING. 



213 



pist or to be of no religion."* He was " an habit- 
ual swearer, a drunkard, and a liar," says Marsden ;f 
and Hallam affirms that he " was all his life rather 
a bold liar than a good dissembler. "J» 

Such was his "sacred majesty" king James I., 
as he has been painted by the sober pen of history. 

James was met in his progress to London by 
two petitions. One, entitled the millenary petition, 
because it was said to have been subscribed by a 
thousand hands, was presented by the Puritans.§ 
In it a reformation of certain ceremonies and alleged 
abuses was urged. The other bore the imprimatur 
of Oxford ; and this pleaded for the maintenance of 
the static quo.W 

When the king reached the metropolis, the plague 
was holding a ghastly fete; and the citizens were so 
terror-stricken that, on the occasion of the corona- 
tion, the streets "were almost desolate, and the 
pageants stood without spectators to gaze upon 
them."f 

But when these horrors had abated, and James 
had settled himself in Elizabeth's luxurious chair 
of state, he responded to the inimical petitions by 
a proclamation, in which he decreed a conference 
for the settlement of the matters in dispute.-* 

* Burnet's Own Times, p. 2. 

f Marsden, Early Puritans, p. 367. See Shent's Ch. History, 
sec. 523. ' { Hallarn, Con. Hist,, vol. 1, p. 291. 

§ Neale, vol. 1, p. 320 ; Marsden, Newell. 
|| Perry, Neale, Heglin, etc. 
H Calderwood ; Strype's Whitgift. 

** Cardwell, Documentary Annals, vol. 2. Strype, Life of 
Whitgift, p. 5G8. 



2U HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 

Of this order was born the famous Conference 
of Hampton Court ; and in January, 1604, the con- 
flicting parties met in a drawing-room within the 
privy chamber of that historic palace,* the monu- 
ment of "Wolsey's despotism and humiliation. 

The Establishment was represented by nine bish- 
ops, reinforced by the same number of lesser digni- 
taries ; and of these, Whitgift and Bancroft were 
the leaders. t 

Four ministers of the king's nomination J were 
the knight-errants of Puritanism in this sorry tilt ; 
and Calderwood complains that " two of these were 
not sound," but were appointed " to spy and pre- 
varicate."§ 

Haynolds, who was esteemed by his contempo- 
raries the most learned man in England,! was the 
Atlas who bore upon his shoulders the Puritan 
cause. Wood, after an elaborate eulogy on this 
great divine's reading, memory, wit, judgment, in- 
dustry, probity, and sanctity of life, closes the glow- 
ing record thus : " In a word, nothing can be spoken 

* Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 172, 173. Burnet's Own Times. 

t Ibid. The names of the church party were, Whitgift, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury ; Bancroft, bishop of London ; bishops Mat- 
thew, Bilson, Buffington, Budd, Watson, Bobinson, and Dove ; 
and of lesser dignitaries, Boden, dean of Chester ; the deans of 
the chapel-royal, St. Paul's, Salisbury, Gloucester, Worcester, and 
Windsor, and the archdeacon of Nottingham. 

X These names were, Drs. John Baynolds and Thomas Sparks, 
professors of divinity at Oxford, and Drs. Chadderton and Knew- 
stubs, professors of divinity at Cambridge. 

§ Calderwood, p. 474. 

|| Newell, p. 223. Fuller. 



THE PEDANT KING. 



215 



against him, save only that lie is a chief pillar of Pu- 
ritanism, and a great favorer of non-conformity."^ 

The king, fancying himself possessed of a capac- 
ity which existed only in the imagination of his 
flatterers, and of a learning which was still more 
mythical, was now intent on glutting his vanity. 
" High on a throne of royal state," he was employ- 
ed in dictating magisterially to an assembly of di- 
vines concerning points of faith and discipline. f 
The royal pedant, 

' ' Like Cato, gave his little senate laws, 
And sat attentive to his own applause ; 
"While statesmen and divines each sentence raise, 
And wonder with a foolish face of praise." 

On the first day of the Conference, the Puritans 
were not admitted, the lords of the Privy-council 
forming the sole audience.; 1 : The whole session was 
devoted to satisfying his majesty upon several moot- 
ed points of discipline,! and in cramming him, as 
the school phrase runs, for his next day's bout with 
non-conformity ; for since James had been bred a 
Presbyterian, it was no Herculean task to let down 
the plummet and sound the shallow depths of his 
knowledge of the English ecclesiastical polity. At 
the last, the king expressed himself well satisfied 
on all points, and so ended the lesson. !l 

On the second day of the Conference — Sunday 
intervened between this session and the opening 

* Wood, Hist, and Antiq. of the Univ. of Oxford, book 1, p. 
301. f Hume, vol. 2, p. 123. 

J Fuller, vol. 3, p. 172 ; Burnet, Strype. § Hume. 

|| Lathbury, Prayer-book ; Shent, Ch. Hist., etc. 



216 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



one — tlie Puritans were ushered into the presence 
of the king. We quote Carlyle's description of what 
ensued : 

"Awful, devout Puritanism, decent, dignified 
ceremonialism — both always of high moment in 
this world, but not of equally high — appeared here 
facing each other. The demands of the Puritans 
seem to modern times very limited indeed. They 
asked that there should be a new and correct trans- 
lation of the Bible — granted. That there should be 
increased zeal in teaching it — omitted. That 'lay 
impropriations,' that is, tithes snatched from the 
old church by laymen, might be made to yield a sev- 
enth part towards maintaining ministers in dark 
regions which had none — refused. That the clergy 
in districts might be permitted to meet together and 
strengthen one another's hands, as in old times — 
indignantly refused. On the whole, if such a thing 
durst be hinted at, for the tone is almost inaudibly 
low and humble, that pious, straitened preachers, in 
terror of offending God by idolatry, and useful to 
human souls, might not be cast out of their parishes 
for genuflections, white surplices, and such like, but 
be allowed some Christian liberty in external things. 
These claims his majesty scouted to the winds, ap- 
plauded by all bishops and dignitaries, lay and cler- 
ical."* 

James loved to argue in the imperative mood. 
He was better at commands than at syllogisms. 
" I will have," said he, " one doctrine and one dis- 
* Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, vol. 1, pp. 51, 52. 



THE PEDANT KING. 



217 



cipline, one religion, in substance and ceremony; 
and therefore I charge all never to speak more upon 
the point how far you are bound to obey, when the 
church hath ordained it."* He then avowed his 
maxim to be, " No bishop, no KiNO."t 

After some further theological skirmishing, 
James turned to Eaynolds, and inquired whether 
he had any thing further to object. "No," said 
the overawed and browbeaten divine. Then rising 
from his chair, the monarch cried, " If this be all 
that you have to say for your party, I shall make 
them conform themselves, or I will harry them out 
of the land, or else do worse. "J 

So fell the curtain on the second session. 

On the third day, the friends of the Establish- 
ment were called into the Privy-chamber to en- 
lighten the king upon the High Commission and 
the oath ex officio, both of which were held by the 
Puritans to be unconstitutional ;§ as indeed the 
great lights of the English bar, Holt and Somers, 
Hale and Erskine, have since decided. 

But since these relics of the Inquisition formed 
chief branches of the royal prerogative, James, who 
was only anxious for an excuse to clutch them, per- 
mitted himself to be convinced by the obsequious 
clergy. || 

When the king announced his determination to 

* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 187. Barlow, p. 85. f Ibid. 

% Ibid., Perry, Neale, Carlyle, etc. 
§ Neale, vol. 1, p. 330, and on. Hallam, Con. Hist. 
|| Fuller, vol. 3 ; Perry, Strype. 

Puritans. \ Q 



218 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



retain these alien and atrocious tyrannies, "Whit- 
gift, in an ecstacy of servility, sobbed out, "Un- 
doubtedly your majesty speaks by the special assist- 
ance of God's Spirit." And Bancroft outran the 
archbishop of Canterbury in this sycophantic scrub- 
race, by falling on his knees and adding, " I protest, 
my heart melteth with joy that Almighty God, of his 
singular mercy, hath given us such a king as, since 
Christ's time, hath not been."* 

These speeches fitly closed the poorest and the 
meanest farce that has ever been enacted. Saxon 
servility here touched the muddiest bottom. The 
foremost divines in England, by position, stooped to 
pay this impious homage to a monarch who was 
known to be the most loquacious pedant, the basest 
coward, the most beastly drunkard, the most pro- 
fane swearer, the filthiest conversationalist, the most 
licentious fop, the most cunning dissembler, and the 
most wholesale liar in the island ;f of whom Bishop 
Burnet says, that " while hungry writers flattered 
him out of all measure at home, he was despised by 
all abroad as a pedant without true judgment, cour- 
age, or steadiness ;" J and who was described by the 
sagacious Sully as "the wisest fool in Europe."§ 

Of the king's conduct at this mock Conference 
men of all parties speak in tones of like contempt. 

* Barlow, Sum of Hampton Court Conference. From Barlow's 
account all others are taken. See Perry, p. 83 ; Fuller, vol. 3, p. 192. 

f Colle's Detection ; Holden, Court and Life of James, 1650 ; 
Kennet, Hist. Eng ; Boumer, vol. 2; Harris, Hist, and Critical 
Acct. of the Life and Writings of James I. ; etc. 

t Burnet's Own Times, p. 8. § Sully, Memoirs, vol. 2. 



THE PEDANT KING. 



219 



At one moment he was a bully, at the next he was 
a buffoon, and then he changed into a bigot.* He 
was extravagantly elated at the figure he had made 
and the "victory" he had achieved over the Non- 
conformists. "I peppered them soundly," wrote 
he to a Scottish churchman.f 

Who can wonder that a later generation scoffed 
and hissed at this picture of a narrow, pedantic, and 
blaspheming king, while all good men prayed God 
to save the church from the feeble knees and the 
itching palms of this bench of bishops ? 

The Conference gave little satisfaction. The bish- 
ops were internally conscious that they made no fine 
figure therein. " The Non-conformists complained 
that the king sent for their divines, not to have their 
scruples satisfied, but his pleasure propounded ; not 
that he might know what they could say, but that 
they might know what he would do. Besides," adds 
honest Fuller, "it was said that the Conference was 
partially set forth by Dr. Barlow alone, who was their 
professed adversary, and to the great disadvantage 
of their divines. And when the Israelites go down 
to the Philistines to whet all their iron tools, no 
wonder if these set a sharp edge on their own and 
a blunt one on their enemies' weapons."^: 

Several weeks after the sine die adjournment of 
the Conference, the king issued a proclamation, in 
which he ordered the rigid enforcement of the con- 



* Newell, p. 229 ; Perry, Burnet, Calderwood, Strype, Shent, 
etc. t Ibid. ; Strype ; Whitgift, App., 239, 

% Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 192, 193. 



220 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



formity statutes, and took the initiatory steps tow- 
ards "harrying the Puritans out of England."* At 
the same time he assumed the right to reshuffle and 
change some portions of the Liturgy upon his own 
ipse dixit. " It was a high strain of the preroga- 
tive," says Neale, " to alter a form of worship estab- 
lished by law merely by a royal proclamation, with- 
out consent of Parliament or convocation ; for by 
the same power that his majesty altered one article 
in the Liturgy, he might set aside the whole ; every 
sentence being equally established by act of Parlia- 
ment. But this wise monarch made no scruple of 
dispensing with the laws. However, the force of 
all proclamations determined with the king's life ; 
and since there was no act of Parliament to estab- 
lish these amendments, it was argued very justly in 
the next reign, that this was not the Liturgy of the 
church of England, and that consequently it was 
not binding upon the clergy. "t 

Two weeks before the Conference at Hampton 
Court, Cartwright died.{ He was one of the initia- 
tors of the Puritan controversy,! and Euller calls 
him the " brain of non-conformity." 

Eight weeks later, Whitgift also went down to the 
grave. || We will not " torment him before his time." 
Some future Swift, some Douglas Jerrold, shall 
paint him with his immortal pen to the scornful 
detestation of the ages. 

; »- Perry, p. 115, and others. f Neale, vol. 1, pp. 331, 332. 

% Puller, vol. 3, p. 171. Newell, p. 171. 

§ Chap. 12, p. 1G7. || Puller, Perry, Strype. 



"FAITHFUL FEIENDS." 



221 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

THE KING'S "FAITHFUL FRIENDS." 

Bishop Banceoft, the avant courier of Laud, a 
prelate "most stiff and stern to press conformity,"* 
succeeded Whitgift in the see of Canterbury. Un- 
der his iron regime the differences between the two 
wings of the church became implacable. A wound 
not dangerous at the outset was poisoned by the 
remedies. t Men's consciences were racked with 
fresh zeal. The government "weeded men's lives, 
and made use, to their disgrace, of their infirmi- 
ties." Each hour the throat of non-conformity was 
pressed more closely. 

When Parliament assembled in 1604, James, in 
his opening harangue, offered " to meet the papists 
in the mid-way, excepting chiefly to the pontiff's 
assumed authority over princes and he added 
that " the sect called Puritans was insufferable in 
any well-governed commonwealth."§ At the next 
session of Parliament, the royal Judas, in pursuit 
of his phantom of a union between Borne and the 
Establishment, grew still more vindictive, declaring 
the Romanists to be "faithful subjects," and this on 
the eve of the Gunpowder-plot; but expressing de- 

* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 244. 

f Bacon's "Works, vol. 2, p. 544. 

% Kapin, Hist. Eng., vol. 2, pp. 165, 166. Neale, vol. 2, p. 51. 
§ Ibid. 



222 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



testation of the Puritans, as worthy of fire for their 
opinions.* 

At the same time a convocation, over which 
Bancroft presided, adopted the Book of Canons 
sanctioned by the king ;f and in these it was main- 
tained that all objectors to the Book of Common 
Prayer, the apostolical character of the Establish- 
ment, or the ordination of bishops, and all abettors 
of other churches independent of the legal one, 
were excommunicated, and abandoned to the wrath 
of God.t 

It puzzled the thinkers of that day to see in 
what respect these canons differed from the papal 
anathemas. Posterity has not solved this problem. 

Grasping these thunderbolts, Bancroft com- 
menced the battle. Fifteen hundred non-conform- 
ing clergymen were silenced, imprisoned, or exiled.§ 
" The clergy proceeded with a consistent disregard 
of the national liberties. The importation of for- 
eign books was impeded ; a severe ecclesiastical 
censorship was exercised over the press ; frivolous 
acts were denounced as religious offences. A later 
convocation, in a series of canons, denied every 
doctrine of popular rights, asserting the superiority 
of the king to the Parliament and the laws, and 
admitting, in their zeal for absolute monarchy, no 
exception to the duty of passive obedience. 

* Prince, p. 3. Bancroft, Hist. United States, vol. 1, p. 298. 
f Constitution and Canons Eccl., Prince, p. 107. 
X Sparrow's Collections, pp. 271-334. Constitutions and Can- 
ons, etc. § Newell, p. 231. Calderwood. 



"FAITHFUL FRIENDS." 



223 



" But the oppressed party was neither intimi- 
dated nor weakened. The moderate men, who 
assented to external ceremonies as to things inclif- 
erent, were unwilling to enforce them by merciless 
cruelty ; and they resisted, not the square cap and 
the surplice, but the compulsory imposition of them. 
Thus the opponents of the church became the guar- 
dians of popular liberty ; the lines of the contend- 
ing parties Were distinctly drawn : the Established 
church and the monarchy on one side, were arrayed 
against the Puritan clergy and the people on the 
other."* 

In this quarrel Parliament began to side openly 
with the Puritans ; not because its members agreed 
in toto with the dissenting religious tenets, but be- 
cause the church had injudiciously declared itself 
against the highest political aspirations of Eng- 
land. So the Commons resolutely favored the sect 
which was their natural ally in the struggle against 
civil despotism. t 

This made James' anger blaze at white heat. 
The recent Parliaments had been so tenacious and 
vigorous in asserting the long buried, but now re- 
suscitated rights guaranteed by Magna CJiarta, that 
the king one day exclaimed, " I had rather live like 
a hermit in the forest, than be a king over such a 
people as the pack of Puritans are that overrule 
the lower house.":]: 



* Newell, p. 231. Calderwood. 

f Bancroft, Hist, of United States, vol. 1, p. 298. 

t Hallam, Con. Hist., vol. 1, pp. 408-120. 



224 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



Unfortunately on the side of the throne were 
the eclat of position, the omnipotence of wealth, the 
prestige of success, and the habit of submission, 
and these made the normal forces of society, justice, 
toleration, regulated liberty, long kick the beam. 

But from the pack of odium which Puritanism, 
like Bunyan's Pilgrim, bore upon its shoulders, one 
parcel now slipped out. Custom, the mint-master 
of current words, had long confounded all dissent- 
ers under the one name, " Puritan." Now, how- 
ever, the " Familists," " whose opinions were as 
senseless as their lives were sensual," in a petition 
to the king pointed out the radical differences be- 
tween their sect and the Puritans, who were, as 
they knew, odious to him, hoping thus to curry 
favor with James. But " these Familists could not 
be so glad to leave the Puritans, as the Puritans 
were glad to be left by them."* 

But the gabble of the "Familists," the murmurs 
of the Parliament, the cries of the Puritans for re- 
dress, and the pedantic clatter of the king were all 
brought to a sudden, though but momentary pause, 
by an " event which never took place." 

England, tottering on the edge of a catastrophe, 
just cheated fate by a timely discovery. Death 
struck with its clammy fingers at the king and Par- 
liament, and missed its aim by the miscarriage of a 
letter. 

In 1605, " the Komanists, despairing either by 
flattery to woo, or force to wrest, any free and pub- 

* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 210. 



"FAITHFUL FRIENDS." 225 



lie exercise of their religion from the state, entered 
into a conspiracy to blow up the Parliament-house 
with gunpowder."* 

The very conception of such an idea is of itself 
the strongest argument that could be offered against 
the bigoted proscription of that illiberal age. The 
Romanist, like the Puritan, was hedged about with 
penalties and disabilities. The reformer submitted 
till patience ceased to be a virtue ; then drawing 
an honest sword, smote off his shackles. The pa- 
pist, true to the genius of his faith, plunged into a 
hidden life of cabal and intrigue, plot and con- 
spiracy. 

" The constant under-agitation of the body pol- 
itic thus produced was in every way unfortunate : 
unfortunate for the Romanists, in furnishing a show 
of justice for the cruelties inflicted on them; for the 
government and the church, in keeping their bitter 
resentments aglow ; for the Puritans, in giving the 
rulers an excuse for more arbitrary proceedings 
against them."t 

At the very time that James was haranguing 
the Parliament on their behalf, his "faithful sub- 
jects" were conspiring to blow him into atoms. 

" Treason without a Jesuit therein, is like a dry 
wall without either lime or mortar." So in this case, 
Gerrard, a whelp of that litter, was the cement to 
join the conspirators together with the sacrament 
of secrecy.J 

* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 212. f Perry, pp. 64, 65. 

t Fuller. 

10* 



226 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



"At the outset," says Fuller, "an important 
scruple arose : how to part their friends from their 
foes in the Parliament, they having many in the 
house of alliance, yea, of the same — in conscience 
a nearer kindred — religion with themselves. Such 
an impartial destruction was uncharitable, yet an 
exact separation seemed impossible. Here a Jes- 
uit, instead of untying, cut this knot asunder with 
this his sharp decision : that ' in such a case as 
this, it was lawful to kill friend and foe together.'* 

" Be it remembered that, though these plotters 
intended at last with honor to own the action, when 
success had made all things secure, yet they pro- 
posed, when the blow was first given, and while the 
act was certain, but the success thereof doubtful, 
to father the fact on the Puritans. They thought 
their backs were broad enough to bear both the 
sin and the shame ; and that this saddle, for the 
present, would finely fit their backs, whose discon- 
tent, as these plotters would pretend, unable other- 
wise to achieve their desired alteration in church 
government, had by this damnable treason effected 
the same. By transferring the fact on the innocent 
Puritans, they hoped not only to decline the odium 
of so hellish a design, but also, by the strangeness 
of the act and the unexpectedness of the actors, to 
amuse all men, and beget a universal distrust, that 
every man would grow jealous of himself. And 

** The conspirators doubtless acted on the Jesuit doctrine that 
"the end justifies the means," and that "evil may be done that 
good may come." 



"FAITHFUL FRIENDS." 



227 



while such amazement tied, in a manner, all hands, 
these plotters promised themselves the working out 
of their ends, partly by their home strength, and 
the rest by calling in the assistance of foreign 
princes. 

" So they fell aworking in a vault beneath the 
Parliament-house. Dark the place, in the depth 
of the earth ; dark the time, in the dead of the 
night ; dark the design, the actors therein con- 
cealed by oath from others, and thereby combined 
among themselves. Oh, how easy is any work 
where high merit is conceived the wages thereof. 
In piercing through the wall nine feet thick, they 
imagined that thereby they hewed forth their way 
to heaven. 

" But they digged more with their silver in an 
hour, than with their iron in many days ; namely, 
when discovering a cellar hard by, they hired the 
same, and these pioneers saved much of their pains 
thereby. And now all things were carried so se- 
cretly, that there was no possibility of detection, 
seeing the actors themselves had solemnly sworn 
that they would not, and all others might as safely 
swear they could not make discovery thereof. 

"But so it fell out, that the sitting of Parlia- 
ment was put off from time to time ; and accord- 
ingly their working in the vault, which attended 
the motion of Parliament, had several distinct in- 
termissions and resumptions, as if God had given 
warning to these traitors, by the slow proceeding 
and oft adjourning of Parliament, meantime seri- 



228 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 

ously to consider what they went about, and sea- 
sonably to desist from so damnable a design, as 
suspicions that at last that would be ruined which 
had been so long retarded. But no taking off their 
wheels will stay those chariots from drowning 
which God hath decreed shall be swallowed in the 
Bed sea.* 

" ' Behold, here are fire and wood ; but where is 
the lamb for the burnt-offering?' Alas, a whole 
flock of lambs were not far off, all appointed to the 
slaughter. The king, prince Henry, peers, bishops, 
judges, knights, burgesses, all destined to destruc- 
tion. But thanks be to God, nothing was blown up 
but the treason, or brought to execution but the 
traitors. 

"With a pen fetched from the feather of a fowl, 
a letter was written to the lord Monteagle in these 
words : 

" ' My Lobd — Out of the love I bear to some of 
your friends, I have a care of your preservation ; 
therefore I would advise you, as you tender your 
life, to devise some excuse to shift off your attend- 
ance at this Parliament, for God and man have 
concurred to punish the wickedness of these times. 
And think not slightingly of this advertisement, but 
retire yourself into your country, where you may 
await the event with safety ; for though there be no 
appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive 
a terrible blow, this Parliament, and still not see who 
hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned, 
* Exodus 14:25 



'FAITHFUL FBIENDS." 229 

because it may do you good, and can do you no 
harm ; for the danger is passed as soon as you burn 
this letter. And I hope God will give you grace to 
make good use of it, to whose holy protection I now 
commend you.' 

" A strange letter from a strange hand, by a 
strange messenger, without date to it, name at it, 
and, I had almost said, sense in it ; a letter which, 
even when it was opened, was still sealed, such the 
affected obscurity therein. 

" The lord Monteagle, as loyalty advised him, 
communicated the letter to the earl of Salisbury, 
he to the king. His majesty, on a second perusal, 
expounded that the mystical 'blow' meant therein 
must be by gunpowder; and he gave orders for 
searching the rooms under the Parliament-house, 
on pretence of looking for lost hangings which were 
conveyed away. 

" The first search, made about evening, discov- 
ered nothing but the cellar full of wood, and a man — 
Fawkes disguised — attending thereon. However, 
the sight of Fawkes so quickened the jealousy of 
Lord Monteagle, that this first slight search led to 
a second scouting, more closely and secretly per- 
formed. 

"This was made at midnight into the vault un- 
der the Parliament-house. There 'the mystery of 
iniquity' was quickly discovered; a pile of fuel, 
faced over with billets, lined under with thirty-six 
barrels of powder, besides iron bars, to make the 
force of the explosion more effectual. Guy Fawkes 



230 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 

was apprehended in the outer room, with a dark- 
lantern in his hand — the lively emblem of their 
design, whose dark side was turned to man, while 
the light part was exposed to God — and three 
matches, ready to give fire to the train."* 

Fawkes confessed all; the conspirators were 
" solemnly arraigned, convicted, and condemned at 
London. So foul the fact, so fair the proof, they 
could say nothing for themselves." One of these 
caitiffs was Garnet, provincial of the English Jes- 
uits, whom the pope afterwards canonized.t 

Thus " murder will out," and " heaven defeated 
hell of its desired success." 

* Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 212-219. 
t Neale, vol. 1, p. 315. Fuller. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH. 



231 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

THE BIETH OF A NEW AND THE DEATH OF 
AN OLD EPOCH. 

England did not at once realize the ghastly 
horror which had so nearly robbed her of her king 
and legislature. But when the people became ac- 
quainted with the programme of the gunpowder- 
plotters, they uttered a vengeful cry. Parliament, 
echoing the opinion of the side-walk, was provoked 
to curb Romanism by the enactment of a rigid 
penal code.* 

But this severity was soon relaxed. A cour- 
tier's hint was the key which unlocked a multitude 
of prison doors. One day Sir Dudley Carlton re- 
turned from Spain. Noticing that the king was 
accustomed to hunt unguarded, the ambassador 
button-holed him, and said, " My liege, if you use 
not more precaution, the Jesuits will assassinate 
you."t This air-drawn dagger terrified the royal 
coward. He disliked to give up hunting, so he 
ceased to persecute the papists. " I have the min- 
utes of the council-book of the year 1606," says 
Burnet, " and they are full of orders for the dis- 
charge and transportation of incarcerated priests; 
sometimes ten a day were set free."^ 



* Lingard, vol. 6, p. 68 ; Hume, Fox. 
f Burnet's Own Times, p. 5. 



{ Ibid. 



232 HISTOBY OF THE PUKITANS. 



But these empty cells were not long aired. The 
Puritans replaced the Romanists. If the papists 
were trodden on, viper-like, they would hiss and 
sting. James thought it safer to spit upon the 
Reformation. This philosophy gave added venom 
to the crusade against Puritanism. Ere long a 
warm controversy sprang up among the Puritans 
as to the lawfulness and the policy of separation."* 
While this battle vexed the ranks of the non-con- 
formists, the conforming clergy stood by as spec- 
tators of the combat. The larger portion of the 
Puritans decided still to adhere to the Establish- 
ment, influenced by the reflection that it was a true 
church, though they esteemed it corrupt in cere- 
mony, and by the fact that the Separatists were 
even worse harried than themselves. t 

Indeed the most rigid of the Separatists were 
already preparing to quit the island.! It was in 
1607 that those pilgrims, whom God destined to be 
the fathers of religious America, took their sad 
farewell of dear, cruel England. 

In the north of the island, scattered through the 
border towns of Yorkshire, and through the county 
hamlets of Nottingham and Lincoln, there lived in 
these years communities of stout yeomen "whose 
hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for 
his truth." They had "joined themselves by a cov- 
enant into a church estate in the fellowship of the 

* Newell, Neale, Hume. 

t Neale, vol. 1, p. 344 ; Newell, Fuller. 

t Bancroft, Hist, of United States, vol. 1, p. 300. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH. 



233 



gospel." Wedded to the Separatist tenets, these 
Puritans rejected " the offices and callings, the 
courts and canons" of the Establishment. [Re- 
nouncing all ecclesiastical obedience to human 
authority, they planted themselves upon the Bible, 
under which they asserted for themselves an unlim- 
ited, never-ending right to make advances in the 
truth, and " to walk in all the ways which God had 
made known or should make known to them."* 

The arbitrary government of James I. could ill 
brook the proclamation of such a gospel. So now, 
scourged, starved, and imprisoned at home, these 
congregations prepared to emigrate. t 

The Netherlands were then the freest, most tol- 
erant countries in Christendom. There also the 
Reformation had been shaped by the plastic hand 
of Calvin. Thus the exiles were attracted to the 
Low Countries. In Holland then they eventually 
settled, though they did not reach that haven with- 
out vicissitudes which would have chilled the ardor 
and affrighted the hearts of less dauntless heroes. 

The continental career of the Pilgrims was no 
smooth gala festival. Strangers in a new land, with 
whose language they were mostly unacquainted, 
they made hard shift to live ; and though they won 
the sympathy and secured the veneration of their 
honest entertainers, Holland was not "home." The 
busy crowds, shod in their wooden shoes, the gut- 
tural Belgic tongue, the quaintly gabled houses, the 

* Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. 1, p. 300. 
\ Ibid. 



234: HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



flat banks of the canals which cobwebbed Holland, 
the dykes which shut out the sullen ocean, and 
which were defended by windmills whose long arms 
were dipped into the encroaching water to fling it 
back from the coasts usurped by the skill of man 
from the complaining sea — these bore no resem- 
blance to the hills and vales of their lost island, 
and they could not compensate the exiles for the 
old, familiar landscape, 

"For tlie shieling wood and stream-girt, 
Where romance youth's summer sped ; 
For the belfry by the gray kirk, 
In whose shadow slept their dead." 

The Pilgrims tarried for a time in Amsterdam ; 
thence they went to Leyden, that heroic town w T hose 
burghers had pawned it to the sea, to save it from 
the grip of the Spaniard and the pope.* There too 
they conquered all hearts by their piety, their pa- 
tience, and their fortitude. 

But despite the friendliness of their reception, 
"weighty reasons, often and seriously discussed, 
inclined the Pilgrims to look beyond Holland for a 
permanent abode. They had been bred to agricul- 
tural pursuits, and in the Netherlands they were 
forced to learn the mechanical trades. Brewster 
became a printer ; Bradford learned the art of dye- 
ing silk. The language of the Dutch never became 
pleasantly familiar. They lived but as men in ex- 
ile. * Their continual labors, with other crosses and 



* Motley, ftise of the Dutch Kepublic, vol. L 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH. 235 



sorrows, left them in danger to scatter or sink.' "* 
They yearned for a true and lasting home. 

One day they decided that, since they might not 
return to England, where persecution frowned on 
them from the sands and cliffs, they would quit 
their Netherland firesides and settle in that shad- 
owy and almost unknown New "World which Colum- 
bus had added to the Old. 

This decision once made, the Pilgrims trans- 
mitted to England a request to be permitted to 
colonize America. " We are well weaned," wrote 
Bobinson and Brewster, two of their most trusted 
teachers, "from the delicate milk of our mother 
country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange 
land. Our people are industrious and frugal. "We 
are knit together as a body in a most sacred cov- 
enant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make 
great conscience, and by virtue of which we hold 
ourselves straitly tied to all care of each other's 
good, and of the whole. It is not with us as with 
men whom small things can discourage."f 

But nothing could be wrung from their surly 
king but an informal promise of neglect. J On this 
the exiles relied, exclaiming, "If there should after- 
wards be a purpose to wrong us, though we had a 
charter whose seal was as broad as the house-floor, 
there would be means enough found to reverse or 
recall it."§ 

At length all was ready. After innumerable 
discouragements, including one false start, when 
» Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 303. f Ibid. t Ibid. § Ibid. 



236 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



they had been winnowed by the desertion of a por- 
tion of their friends whose hearts had failed thern 
at the critical moment, the little company of one 
hundred and twenty souls, men, women, and chil- 
dren,* repaired to Delft-Haven. Here, since with 
the Pilgrims every undertaking began with God, 
they knelt by the side of the moaning sea, while 
Robinson invoked the heavenly benediction on his 
departing flock ; after which that great teacher 
gave them a farewell which breathed a freedom of 
opinion and an independence of authority such as 
then was hardly known in the world. f 

Then came the embarkation ; the sails were 
spread, and " the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, 
freighted with the prospects of a future state, 
plunged across the unknown sea." 

We may not pause to rehearse the touching 
story of the long, cold, and dangerous autumnal 
passage ; of the landing on the inhospitable rocks 
at a dismal season ; of their desertion by the ship 
which had brought them from Holland, and which 
seemed their only hold upon the world of fellow- 
men, a prey to the elements and to want, and fear- 
fully ignorant of the power and temper of the sav- 
age tribes that filled the unexplored continent upon 
whose verge they stood. :f 

" But all things wrought together for good. 
These trials of wandering and exile, of the ocean, 
the winter, the wilderness, and the savage foe, were 

* Young's Narrative. Neale, Records of the Pilgrims, etc. 
f Bancroft. 1 Everett. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH. 



237 



the final assurance of success. They kept away 
from the enterprise all patrician softness, all hered- 
itary claim to preeminence. No effeminate nobility 
crowded into the austere ranks of the Pilgrims. No 
Carr, no Yilliers desired to conduct this ill-provided 
band of outcast Puritans. No well-endowed clergy 
were desirous to quit their cathedrals to set up a 
splendid hierarchy in the frozen wilderness. No 
craving governors were anxious to be sent over to 
a cheerless El Dorado of ice and snow."* 

But the gloomy presage did not daunt the con- 
scientious exiles ; through all they trusted God. 
When half their company lay dead on the chilly 
coast, and the rest seemed shivering towards the 
grave, they found strength to murmur, " Father, 
not our will, but thine be done." 

And this unfaltering faith God owned, and he 
blessed their enterprise beyond their most sanguine 
hope or thought. " Successful indeed in its outset, 
it has been more and more successful at every sub- 
sequent point in the line of time. Accomplishing 
all they projected, what they projected is the least 
part that has come to pass. Forming a design in 
itself grand, bold, and even appalling in its requi- 
site risks and sacrifices, the fulfilment of that de- 
sign is the least thing which, in the steady progress 
of events, has flowed from their counsels and their 
efforts. Did they propose for themselves a refuge 
beyond the sea from the religious and political 
tyranny of Europe ? They achieved not that alone, 
* Everett, Orations and Speeches, vol. 1, p. 47. 



238 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



but they have opened a wide asylum to all the vic- 
tims of oppression throughout the world. Did they 
look for a retired spot, inoffensive from its obscuri- 
ty, safe in its remoteness from the haunts of des- 
pots, where the little church of Ley den might enjoy 
freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions 
over which in peaceful conquest — victoria sine 
clade — they have borne the banners of the cross. 
Did they seek, under the common franchise of a 
trading-charter, to prosecute a frugal commerce in 
reimbursement of the expenses of their humble 
establishment ? The fleets and navies of their de- 
scendants are on the farthest ocean, and the wealth 
of the Indies is now wafted on every tide to the 
coasts where, with hook and line, they painfully 
gathered up their frugal earnings. Did they in 
their brightest, most sanguine moments contem- 
plate a thrifty, loyal, and prosperous colony, por- 
tioned off, like a younger son of the imperial fam- 
ily, to a humble and dutiful distance ? Behold the 
spectacle of a powerful and independent republic, 
founded on the shores where some of those are but 
lately dead who saw the first-born of the Pilgrims."* 
But while the Pilgrims were preparing to cross 
the sea, king James was full of his prerogative. 
He " apprehended that he could convince his sub- 
jects of its unlimited extent. For this purpose he 
turned preacher in the Star-chamber, and took this 
text : " Give the king thy judgments, O God, and 
thy righteousness to the king's son."t 

* Everett, lit antea. t Psalm 72 : 1. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH. 



239 



"After dividing and subdividing, and giving the 
literal and the mystical meaning of his text, he ap- 
plied it to the judges and courts of judicature, tell- 
ing them that 'the king sitting in the throne of 
God, all judgments centre in him ; and therefore, 
for inferior courts to determine difficult questions 
without consulting him, was to limit his power and 
encroach on his prerogative, which it was not law- 
ful for the tongue of lawyer nor any subject to dis- 
pute.' As it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute 
what God can do, ' so,' said James, ' it is to take 
away that mystical reverence which belongs to him 
who sits in the throne of God.' Then addressing 
himself to his auditory, he advised them ' not to 
meddle with the king's prerogative or honor. Plead 
not,' he added, 1 upon Puritanical principles, which 
make all things popular, but keep within the an- 
cient limits.' "* 

"When Alexander sent word to the Lacedaemo- 
nians that he had made himself a god, they replied 
with easy nonchalance, "Be a god." But when 
king James set up for one, the Puritans, it seems, 
were not equally complaisant. 

In 1618, twenty-four months after his plea for 
the prerogative, James, in order to repress the 
growth of Puritanism, by enlisting the natural de- 
pravity of the human heart against it, issued a dec- 
laration for the encouragement of Sunday sports, a 
declaration right in the teeth of a proclamation of 
an earlier date, and also counter to the Articles ol 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 372. 



240 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



tlie cliurcli ratified under the great seal, in which 
the morality of the day was affirmed. By this man- 
ifesto magistrates were directed not to disturb "any 
lawful recreations, such as dancing, either of men 
or women, archery, leaping, vaulting, Whitsun-ales, 
or May-games."* 

" When this declaration was hawked abroad, it 
is not so hard to believe, as sad to recount, what 
grief and distraction was thereby occasioned in 
many honest men's hearts ; the recreations speci- 
fied being conceived impeditive to the observation 
of the Lord's day, yea, unsuitable and unbeseeming 
the essential duties thereof. "t 

The king had never been a stickler for purit} 7 of 
doctrine ; he accepted what made for, and forbade 
what made against the maxims of absolutism. He 
was enamoured only of outward uniformity and 
clerical subserviency. His latest whim was to 
patronize the Arminian tenets. The most zealous 
advocates of that creed were now advanced to some 
of the best bishoprics in England. "These divines, 
apprehending that their principles were hardly con- 
sistent with the Thirty-nine Articles, fell in with the 
prerogative, and covered themselves under the wing 
of his majesty's pretensions to unlimited power. 
This gave rise to a new distinction at court between 
cliurcli and state Puritans. All were Puritans with 
king James who clutched the Magna Charta in op- 
position to his arbitrary government ; these were 
Puritans in the state, as those were Puritans who 

* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 270. Neale, vol. 1, p. 381. f Fuller. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH 



241 



had scruples about the ceremonies in the church. 
Ecclesiastical Puritanism was now reinforced by 
the Constitutionalists, and these united formed the 
great majority of the nation. To balance this po- 
tent party, James protected and countenanced the 
Arminians and the papists, who, in their turn, cried 
lustily for the prerogative, and hardened into a 
state faction against the fundamental laws and the 
sealed charters of the past."* 

It was around these nucleus bodies that the sat- 
ellites of either revolved. 

And now the home record became as disgraceful 
as the foreign aspect was disastrous. The " Thirty 
Years' "War" was desolating the Continent. Prot- 
estantism seemed at its last gasp. Gustavus Adol- 
phus had not yet swooped with his Norsemen to 
the rescue ; Pichelieu had not yet commenced to 
spin his web of tortuous policy. The Ultramon- 
tanists were everywhere triumphant. Yet England 
looked on calmly and saw the Reformation choked. 
Even when the king's son-in-law lost the palatinate, 
while his daughter and her elector-husband were 
driven into Holland for a sanctuary, the British gov- 
ernment merely muttered a verbal protest. The 
laz}^ indolence of the king, both as a father and a 
Protestant, was only broken by a demand for a sub- 
sidy, ostensibly to aid the good cause, but which the 
royal swindler dissipated in riot and licentiousness.! 

But it is not necessary to go minutely into the 
history of the latter years of this imbecile pedant's 

* Neale, vol. 1, p. 384. f Hallam, Schiller. 

Puritans. 1 1 



242 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



disgraceful reign. James was consistent only in 
his hatred of the Puritans. Towards thern the Nero, 
the Caligula of his character never changed. In 
all other respects he was a kaleidoscope, of which 
the shrewdest courtier could never " guess" the 
next combination. 

He reduced England from a first-class to a sec- 
ond-rate power ; his government was a prolonged 
plot; and so well known was his cowardice, that 
foreign nations always counted on it when settling 
their English policy. Thus Dionysio Lazari, who 
spent some years in Britain under James' rule, 
made a report to the Congregation for the Propa- 
gation of the Faith at Kome, in which, after speci- 
fying the means whereby Romanism might be ad- 
vanced in England, he said that " he relied much 
on the plan of working upon the fears and suspi- 
cions of the king, who was timid, and who seemed 
indifferent to any religion."" 

Macauley states that James, in order to effect 
his favorite project of marrying his son into one of 
the great continental houses, was ready to make 
immense concessions to Rome, and even to admit 
a modified primacy in the pope.t 

He was always scheming to root out Scottish 
Presbyterianism, and to extend the English Estab- 
lishment into the twin kingdom.:): But this plot 
was foiled by the resolution of the Covenanters, 

* Eanke, History of the Popes, vol. 2, p. 456. 
t Macauley, Miscellaneous Essays. . 
J Wilson, Hist, of King James. .Collier. 



NEW AND OLD EPOCH, 



243 



and the royal "god" found that his prerogative 
could not conjure this creation into existence. v 

Almost the only thing which posterity can find 
to laud in James' reign is the new translation of the 
Bible, which was then undertaken and completed ; 
and even this was one of the scanty concessions 
which the evangelical party in the church wrung 
from the king at the Hampton Court conference. 
"The number of select and competent divines en- 
gaged in this great work," says Fuller, " was not too 
many, lest one such trouble another ; and yet many, 
lest any thing might haply escape them. Neither 
courting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach 
for slackness — seeing that in a business of moment 
none deserve blame for convenient slowness — they 
had expended almost three years in the work, not 
only examining the channels by the fountain, the 
translation with the original, which was necessary, 
but also comparing channels with channels, which 
was abundantly useful, in the Spanish, Italian, 
French, and Dutch languages. The Bible was pub- 
lished in 1611 ; and their learning, skilfulness, piety, 
discretion therein, have bound the church unto them 
in a debt of special remembrance and gratitude."* 

It is also worthy of note, though James had little 
enough to do with it, that the first congregation of 
that sect, which afterwards won such wide fame and 
set on foot such mighty revolutions on either con- 
tinent, the Independents, was gathered in England 
by a divine named Jacob, in James' age. J acob, a 

* Fuller, vol. 3. pp. 245-25G. 



244 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 

spiritual son of that Kobinson who led the Pilgrims 
at Leyden, formed his infant Congregational church 
in 1615.* Their chief principles were these : " the 
sufficiency of Scripture, leaving nothing to church 
practice or human tradition, these being but the 
iron feet and clay toes of that statue whose head 
and whole body ought to be pure scripture-gold ; a 
refusal to make any present judgment binding on 
them in the future ; the complete independence of 
the individual congregations."t 

But to recur to James. He was a punctual 
attender on the forms of worship, and he affected 
to be something of a metaphysician. But he heard 
the exhortations of his clergy, and listened to the 
refinements of his court preacher, Andrews, the 
famous bishop of Winchester, precisely as, a little 
later, Louis XIV. sat, with his mistress by his side, 
and enjoyed the eloquent flights of Massillon and 
Bossu6t4 

But the tragi-comedy was well-nigh ended. In 
1625 death cut short the pageant. James descended 
into the grave, and the court which Hallam esti- 
mates as the most immoral in English history,§ was 
robbed of its exemplar. 

Away across the misty waters, on the rock at 
Plymouth, an epoch was commencing ; in England 
an epoch lay dead in the coffin of king James. 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 371, 372. f Fuller, vol. 3, p. 462. 

X Perry, p. 55. § Hallam, Con. Hist. 



THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 



245 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 

On the accession of Charles I., the times were 
pregnant with mighty changes. A revolution was 
maturing which Gocl destined to be the eldest born 
of the Reformation. The people, weary and fretful, 
felt, rather than saw the approaching dissolution of 
the feudal idea. That haughty prerogative upon 
which the Tudors and the Stuarts leaned so heav- 
ily, was about to snap. To the maxims, the forms, 
the language of arbitrary monarchy, the English 
commons were soon to give the lie. 

The tenets of unlimited power were an exotic in 
England ; they were a recent importation from the 
Continent. In France, in Spain, in Italy, in Ger- 
many itself, the cradle of individualism, the liber- 
ties of subjects were held to exist only as subordi- 
nate rights, or rather, as concessions for which they 
were indebted to a despot's generosity.* " I am 
the state !" exclaimed arrogant imperialism. 

In England these haughty pretensions were 
comparatively new. The middle class of islanders 
were not wont " to crook the pregnant hinges of 
the knee;" they were accustomed to make no East- 
ern salaams. Magna Charta had long been the Gib- 
raltar of popular rights. But a new regime began 

• Guizot, Hist. Eng. Rev., vol. 1, p. 7. 



246 HISTOEY OF THE PTJKITANS. 



with the royalty of the Tudors. Henry VII. curbed 
the aristocracy of Britain, as Louis XI. broke the 
spirit of the feudalists in France. The iron barons 
of Kunnymede melted into the courtier fops of a 
licentious and degenerate age. 

The commons were long held too low to strug- 
gle against these innovations, but they cherished 
the memory of the old, free days all the more ten- 
derly because the past was linked with epithets of 
contempt by the usurping court. 

Gradually the people crept up to a higher level ; 
the entrance of the lesser nobility and of the smaller 
landed proprietors into the House of Commons pro- 
vided them with resolute and determined leaders. 
Thus it chanced that, "while the higher aristocracy 
crowded around the court, to make up for their spo- 
liation of authority in borrowed dignities, as cor- 
rupting as they were precarious — and which, without 
giving them back their former fortunes, separated 
them more and more from the people — the gentry, 
the freeholders, the citizens, occupied mainly in 
improving their land, in extending their trade, in 
enlarging their minds through the keen competi- 
tions of active life, increased in riches and credit, 
and became daily more closely united, drawing the 
masses under their influence ; in this way the yeo- 
men, without show, without political design, almost 
unknown to themselves, took possession of the 
social forces of the island. 

Then came the Reformation. Men's minds were 
* Guizot, ut antea. 



THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 



247 



emancipated. The people began to think and to 
question. The logical sequence of ecclesiastical 
freedom is civil liberty. Men who examined boldly 
the mysteries of divine power, might not long be 
shackled by earthly authority. Resistance to ty- 
rants became obedience to God. 

This inevitable tendency was invigorated by the 
triumphant civilization of the era. Commerce put 
its belt around the globe. The needle trembled to 
the pole, and timid mariners no longer hugged the 
mainland. " The career of maritime discovery had 
been pursued with daring intrepidity and with brill- 
iant success. The voyages of Gosnold and Smith 
and Hudson, the enterprise of Raleigh and Dela- 
ware and Gorges, the compilations of Eden and 
Willes and Hakluyt had filled the commercial world 
with wonder."* London became immensely wealthy; 
and it was the Shylock to whom the king, the court, 
and most of the great nobles of the kingdom, always 
insolent and always needy, became debtors. f 

The active brains and the industrious ringers of 
the people grasped so vast a portion of the public 
wealth, that it was found, on the opening of Parlia- 
ment in 1628, that the House of Commons was three 
times as rich as the House of Lords. J 

Animated by this discovery, the yeomen next 
turned to examine how much the despotism of six 
decades had left them. They were surprised here 
also. Though for a long time strangers to resist- 

• Bancroft. f Clarendon, Hist, of the Eebellion. 

X Hume, vol. 2 ; Sanderson, Walker. 



248 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



ance, the Commons had still the means of resistance 
in their hand. Parliament had not ceased to meet ; 
sovereigns, finding it submissive, having often em- 
ployed it as an instrument of their tyranny. Under 
Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth, juries had shown 
themselves complaisant and even servile, but they 
still existed. The towns had preserved their char- 
ters, the corporations their immunities. England 
did not lack free institutions half so much as the 
disposition and will to use therm* The forms were 
largely on the side of liberty; now, disgusted by 
the exercise of absolute power and enlightened by 
Christianity, the spirit and the purpose of the mid- 
dle classes began to vivify these old, dead forms. 

Such was the temper of England when Charles 
I. grasped his father's overgrown sceptre. There 
was much in the young king to placate resentment. 
He was orderly, chaste, sober, and religious so far 
as regarded the outward ceremonies of the faith, 
yet tinged with superstition and with bigotry. f 
" Sickened of the meanness, the talkative and fa- 
miliar pedantry, the inert and pusillanimous poli- 
tics of James, England looked forward to happiness 
and liberty under a king whom she could respect."^ 

Neither Charles nor England knew how much 
they were estranged from each other. 

The king's education had been unfortunate. He 
was taught to think that the maxims of absolutism 



* Guizot, vol. 1, p. 11. 

f Perinchief s Life of Charles I. ; Woinick's Memoirs ; Claren- 
don. % Guizot, vol. 1, p. 2. 



THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 



249 



knew no limit;* lie imbibed an early and severe 
aversion to Puritanism both in church and state ;f 
on his accession he adopted his father's favorite, 
the weak and vain Yilliers ; and though he had good 
natural abilities, jet he surrendered into the hands 
of minions the substance of that arbitrary power of 
which he was enamoured; "nor was he ever mas- 
ter of so much judgment in politics as to discern 
his own and the nation's true interest, or to take 
the advice of those who did."{ 

He had a habit of duplicity. § Like his father, 
he esteemed his promises as mere make-shifts, as 
expedients simply intended to tide over shallow 
spots ; and when he had pawned his "royal word" 
to England, his design was to elude the public ex- 
pectation. || He had not the art to please ;T and 
with all his hypocrisy, he lacked what James I. 
called kingcraft. 

Charles had recently returned from Spain, 
whither" he had gone with the purpose of contract- 
ing a marriage with the Infanta. " He had been 
received at Madrid with great honors, and there 
he saw monarchy in all its splendor — majestic, su- 
preme — exacting both from its attendants and from 
the people a devotedness and a respect almost re- 

* Kapin, Hist. Eng., vol. 2, p. 570 ; Sidney's State Papers ; 
Hume. f Eushworth, vol. 1 ; Neale, vol. 1, p. 401. 

% Neale. 

§ Newell, p. 249 ; King's Cabinet Opened, p. 4 ; Sidney's State 
Papers. 

|| Kushworth, Hume, Eapin ; Harris, Life of Charles L 
H Hackett's Life of Bishop Williams, vol. 1, p. 210. 
11* 



250 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



ligious ; rarely contradicted, and always sure of car- 
rying all before it, the sovereign, by bis will alone, 
being above all opposition."* The Spanish match 
fell through, and Charles married Henrietta Maria 
of France, the daughter of Henri Quatre. " The 
impressions made on the English prince by this 
union were similar to those received in Spain, and 
henceforth the monarchies of Paris and Madrid 
became in his eyes a model of the natural and legit- 
imate condition of a king."f 

Of course such a prince could not read the por- 
tents of his time. Charles never comprehended his 
epoch ; he was destined to lose his life in a mad tilt 
against the gravitation of his century. 

In y 1625 Parliament met. . " It was almost a 
senate of kings that an absolute monarch called 
around his throne. Neither prince nor people, but 
least of all the latter, had as yet unravelled the 
principle or measured the strength of their claims ; 
they met with the sincere hope and intention of 
settling any differences which might exist, when, in 
fact, their disunion was already consummated, for 
they all thought as sovereigns. "J 

This radical disagreement was soon developed. 
Parliament instituted a boundless and searching 
examination of public affairs, and refused to grant 
the king the requisite subsidies to carry on the war 
which then raged with Spain, until he redressed the 
national grievances. § 

* Guizot, Neale, Hume. f Ibid. $ Ibid. 

$ Old Pari. Hist., vol. 6, p. 407. 



THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 



251 



Charles, indignant at the boldness of the Com- 
mons in standing upon terms with him, dissolved 
the Parliaments His next step was clearly uncon- 
stitutional. He attempted to coerce a loan.t The 
success of this move was problematical ; but with 
the sum thus "borrowed" an expedition w T as 
launched against Cadiz, which failed miserably, 
owing " to the ignorance of the admiral and the 
drunkenness of the troops," X 

Six months after the dissolution of the first par- 
liament, the chagrined king, pinched for funds and 
with an empty exchequer, was obliged to convene 
the Commons and request a legitimate supply.§ 
In order to bar out of the new parliament the most 
active and obnoxious members of the old one, he 
had them named sheriffs of their respective coun- 
ties, a nomination which disqualified them for a 
reelection to the House. || Among the victims of 
this trick were Sir Edward Coke, and Sir Thomas 
Wentworth, then a popular omtor with Puritanical 
predilections. IT 

But notwithstanding the king's efforts to win- 
now out the stoutest champions of the people, this 
parliament proved more stubborn and decided than 
its predecessor. It not only withheld all subsidies, 
it impeached the duke of Buckingham. 

The king, incensed by this action, seized two of 

* Old Pari. Hist., vol. 6, p. 407. 

f Hume, vol. 2, p. 193 ; Neale, Guizot. 

% Guizot, vol. 1, p. 22. 

§ Hume, vol. 2, p. 193 ; Neale, Kushworth. || Ibid. 

IT Neale. ** Hume, vol. 2, p. 194. 



252 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the managers of the impeachment and threw them 
into the Tower ;* then turning to the Commons, he 
ominously hinted that unless they speedily fur- 
nished him with the required supplies, he should 
be obliged to try new counsels.^ Lest the ambigu- 
ity of this phrase should puzzle the Commons, the 
vice-chamberlain informed the House that Charles 
meant, in case of further opposition, to abolish 
Parliament, and govern alone. " Let us be careful 
then," he added, "to preserve the king's good opin- 
ion of Parliament, lest we be stripped of our repute 
as a free people by our turbulency." 

" These imprudent suggestions," says Hume, 
"rather gave warning than struck terror. The 
Commons thought that a precarious liberty, which 
was to be preserved by unlimited complaisance, 
was no liberty ; and it was necessary, while yet in 
their power, to secure the Constitution by such in- 
vincible barriers, that no king or minister should 
ever for the future dare to speak such words to any 
parliament, "t 

Instantly all business stopped. The House 
boldly proclaimed its ultimatum — the immediate 
release of its incarcerated members, or national 
bankruptcy. At last Charles yielded ; the im- 
peachers were set free ;§ and incited by this exam- 
ple, the House of Lords demanded, as its sine qua 
non y the unconditional liberation of the earl of 



* Hume, Kushworth, Clarendon, etc. 

f Hume, vol. 2, p. 195. 

§ Ibid., Guizot, Neale, Perry. 



% Ibid. 



THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 



253 



Arundel, who had been recently confined in the 
Tower. To this also the enraged and beaten king 
assented.* 

The Parliament then fell once more upon their 
grievances. The encroachments of Rome occa- 
sioned great anxiety. The queen, a " lady of a 
haughty spirit, and a great wit and beauty," was a 
Romanist ; and trooping into England, ostensibly 
in her suite, came a swarm of papists. t Charles 
openly favored them, and influenced by his exam- 
ple, they "matched into the best families of the 
island.":): 

The Arminian schism also troubled the Com- 
mons. Eventually a committee on religion was 
appointed, but it was soon gagged by the king, who 
informed the House that his supremacy had cogni- 
zance of religious differences. § This fiat wrested 
these questions from the decision of the Parlia- 
ment ; but the debate, adjourned to the lobbies, 
still raged fiercely, until a royal proclamation com- 
manded all to cease expressing an opinion on the 
controverted points.! " The Puritans thought that 
they might still write in defence of the received 
doctrine of the Thirty -nine Articles ; but since the 
press was in the hands of their adversaries, some of 
their books were suppressed, some were mutilated, 
and others which got abroad were called in, while 
the authors and publishers were questioned in the 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 195 ; Guizot, Neale, Perry, 
t Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, by his Wife ; Edinburgh cel., 
p. 85. t Ibid. § Ibid. || Neale, vol. 1, p. 410. 



254: HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



Star-cliamber and High Commission courts, for en- 
gaging in a controversy prohibited by the govern- 
ment. Half a dozen bishops, called Arminians, un- 
dertook to decide on the truth or error of the writ- 
ings of all the wise and great men of the nation, in 
. doing which they were so partial that learning and 
industry were discouraged ; men of gravity and great 
experience not being able to persuade themselves 
to submit their labors to be mangled and torn in 
pieces by a few younger divines who were both 
judges and parties in the affair. At length the 
booksellers, being nearly ruined, prepared a peti- 
tion, in which they complained that the writings of 
the best authors were stifled in the press, while the 
books of their adversaries, papists and Arminians, 
were published and spread over the whole king- 
dom."* Eushworth records that, while the edge of 
the law was turned towards the Puritans to stop 
their mouths, their opponents were permitted to 
give uncontrolled liberty to their tongues and pens. 

At this juncture, Charles, hopeless of wringing 
money from the Parliament, and determined not 
to accede to their just demands, prorogued both 
Houses, t and proceeded to follow the example of 
the Paris and Madrid monarchies. 

» Neale, vol. 1, pp. 410, 411. 

f Pari. Hist., vol. 2, p. 193. Whitelocke's Memorials of Eng. 
Affairs. 



THE "NEW COUNSELS." 255 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE "NEW COUNSELS." 

The heedless king had already trodden on the 
magna charta ; he now took another step towards 
that ghastly "Whitehall scaffold. 

The " neiv counsels" which Charles had men- 
tioned to the Parliament were now to be tried.*" 
Another forced loan was decreed by a royal ipse 
dixit: commissioners were appointed to harvest 
this filched golden crop ; and they were empow- 
ered to interrogate the refractory on the grounds of 
their refusal, to learn who had persuaded them to 
resist, by what discourse, and with what design.f 

It has been truly said, that this was at once an 
attack upon the fortunes and the opinions of indi- 
viduals. Even on the Continent, the most absolute 
government would have regarded such an expedient 
as high-handed, irregular, and unequal. J England 
now had a taste of what she might expect from an 
uncurbed prerogative. Gentlemen of birth and 
character, who refused to lend what sum the Coun- 
cil was pleased to demand of them, were taken from 
their residences and flung into distant jails.§ The 



* Hume, vol. 2, p. 197. 

f Pari. Hist., vol. 2 ; Neale, vol. 1 ; Whitelocke's Memorials. 
% Hume. § Neale, vol. 1, p. 411 ; Eushworth, Carlyle. 



255 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



poorer classes were saddled with soldiers who dra- 
gooned whole counties,* or else they were themselves 
pressed into the army. The seaports and maritime 
districts were commanded to supply and equip a 
specified number of armed vessels, this being the 
king's initial attempt to collect ship-money.f The 
city of London was rated at twenty ships. " Why," 
cried the astonished citizens, " that is a larger num- 
ber than Elizabeth demanded to repel the Spanish 
Armada." The reply was, " The precedents of the 
past are obedience, not objections." J 

To justify this inquisitorial tyranny, the doctrine 
of passive obedience was everywhere preached.§ 
The court clergy made the island echo with their 
slavish pleas. One of these sermons was brought 
to Archbishop Abbot, the able and sincerely pious 
successor of Bancroft, to be licensed. The honest 
prelate read it with disgust, then threw it from him ; 
he would not sully the Canterbury imprimatur by 
affixing it to so despicable a pamphlet. For this, 
Abbot was suspended from all his archiepiscopal 
functions, and banished to one of his country seats. || 
The archbishop's principles of liberty, together with 
his opposition to Buckingham, had always given 
him an ungracious reception at court, where he had 
the reputation of a Puritan ; " for it is remarkable 
that this party made the privileges of the nation as 

* Guizot. f Hume, Guizot, Rushworth. 

% Whitelocke's Memorials, etc., p. 7. 

§ Hume, Neale, Perry, Lathbury, Fuller, etc. 

|| Fuller, vol. 3, p. 349, and on ; Guizot, Neale, Perry. 



THE "NEW COUNSELS." 



257 



much a part of their religion as the church party 
did the prerogatives of the crown. "* Though he 
was not formally impeached off the bench, Abbot, 
like Grindal, never regained his forfeited honors. 
His offence was too stupendous for pardon. 

Notwithstanding its arbitrary course, the Coun- 
cil reaped but a lean harvest of guineas. The coun- 
try held its pounds tightly ; the metropolis equivo- 
cated, invented excuses, made pretences, and finally, 
when closely pressed, flatly refused to loan a shil- 
ling^ 

The king, pressed and tormented for funds, yet 
too haughty to buy a supply by justice, passed from 
one usurpation? to another, by the imprisonment of 
those from whom he could not "borrow." Nay, he 
insisted that the judges should decree it as a prin- 
ciple, that men arrested by his orders should not 
be permitted to find bail, which was a blow at one 
of the oldest, best-defined rights of Anglo-Saxon 
liberty. 

This question was stirred by five gentlemen, who 
had been detained on the complaint of the royal 
Council, and who, at the court of King's-Bench, 
claimed to be set free on bail.$ 

" The judges rejected the demand for bail, and 
remanded the prisoners to the Tower, but without 
establishing the principle the king had prescribed ; 
for, already struck with a double fear, they neither 
dared show themselves servile nor just ; and to save 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 198. f Ibid., p. 197. 

J Hume, Guizot, Hutchinson, Memoirs, etc. 



258 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 

themselves from trouble, they refused their consent 
to despotism, and their aid to liberty.'!* 

The king's exchequer had now gotten as low as 
the national expenses had mounted high. In this 
strait, says Neale, he had recourse to the Roman- 
ists, from whom he " got a good round sum by issu- 
ing a commission to the archbishop of York to com- 
pound with them for forfeitures which had accrued 
in the past> or which might fall due in future. "t 
This expedient did indeed momentarily fill the royal 
coffers, while it gratified the inclination of the mon- 
arch to give indulgence to those religionists. J But 
this fatal policy drove many who were well-affected 
to the Establishment, but opposed»to Romanism, 
into the Puritan camp,§ which now began to be 
esteemed the only Protestant rendezvous, as it had 
long been held to be the citadel of civil liberty. 

The long unfed and hungry expenses of the king- 
speedily ate up the new contents of the lean ex- 
chequer, and the court was again pinched by sharp 
want. Yet bankrupt and almost without an army, 
engaged already in a struggle with the house of 
Austria, standing at home on the verge of an abyss, 
while the irritation of the nation became daily more 
aggressive, baffled in his domestic programme and 
in his foreign policy, the crazy king flung down the 
gauntlet to Richelieu, and plunged chaotic England 
into the arena against Erance.ll 



* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 30, 31. | Neale, vol. 1, p. 411. 

X Hume, vol. 2, p. 197. § Neale, Hume, Carlyle. 

|| Hume, vol. 2 ; Clarendon, vol. 1 ; Guizot, Carlyle, Perry, 



THE "NEW COUNSELS. 



259 



This war was created by the intrigues of a licen- 
tious courtier. Yilliers of Buckingham, desiring to 
return to Paris that he might prosecute an amour 
with Anne of Austria, begun when he went to escort 
Henrietta Maria to England, and for which he had 
been forbidden the kingdom by Louis XIII., * pre- 
vailed on his royal master, who was his puppet, to 
undertake this mad crusade ; and in order to give 
it a color of popularity, it was proclaimed that the 
object of the war was to succor the succumbing 
Huguenots, f 

History scouts this pretext ; for his majesty and 
his whole court had a mortal aversion to the Hu- 
guenots, who closely resembled the detested Pu- 
ritans in discipline and worship, in religion and in 
politics.:!: " Buckingham had no religion at all ; a 
portion of the king's counsellors were open Boman- 
ists ; the rest believed that there was no salvation 
for Protestants outside the church of England ; how 
then can it be credited that such a government, an 
absurd trinity of infidelity, papistry, and Arminian- 
ism, should wage war in defence of a religion which 
they held in the utmost contempt ?"§ 

Of course nothing but disaster could await such 
hypocritical and senseless politics. A monarchy 
proud of its military prowess, learned one day that 
an expedition, conducted by Yilliers in person, and 
intended to succor La Bochelle, which Bichelieu 



Clarendon, Hume, Neale, etc. f Ibid. 

X Hume, vol. 2, pp. 200, 201 ; Hist, of the Huguenots, Amer. 
Tract Society, 1866. § Neale, vol. 1, p. 414 



280 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



was- slowly starving into submission, had failed mis- 
erably through the bungling incapacity of its chief, 
and that Buckingham was returning to England 
with a loss of two-thirds of his force, and totally dis- 
credited both as an admiral and as a general.* 

Throughout the island " a multitude of families, 
beloved and respected by the people, were in mourn- 
ing. The indignation became intense. The farmer 
left his fields, the apprentice quitted his shop, to 
inquire whether his master, a gentleman or citizen, 
had not lost a brother or a son ; and they returned 
to their neighbors with an account of the disasters 
they had heard, of the trouble they had seen, curs- 
ing Buckingham and censuring the king."t 

Losses of another kind still further imbittered 
the people, and especially the mercantile classes. 
The French navy endangered the safety and wreck- 
ed the prosperity of English commerce ; their ves- 
sels rotted in port; their merchandise reposed in 
their warehouses ; while the sailors, unemployed, 
talked of the recent defeat of the royal fleet, and of 
the causes of their own inaction. The gentry, the 
citizens, and the people became daily more closely 
united in one common feeling of resentment and 
disgust. | 

When Buckingham landed, even his hauteur 
was awed by the scoffs which smote him.§ But the 
unhappy king, anxious to screen his favorite, and 
compelled to settle a new programme, was per- 

Hume, vol. 2, p. 201. f Guizot, vol. 1. pp. 31, 32. 

1 Ibid. § Clarendon, Neale, Guizot. 



THE "NEW COUNSELS." 



261 



suaded to propitiate public opinion by giving out 
that Villiers had urged the convocation of the Par- 
liament.* " Gain our hearts," said Sir Robert Col- 
ton, one of the mildest of the popular leaders, to the 
king, quoting the words of Burleigh to Elizabeth — 
" gain our hearts, and you will soon have our arms 
and purses."t 

Charles, spurred by necessity, went now to the 
extreme of complaisance. The prisons were flung 
open ; seventy-eight state-prisoners were released, 
twenty-seven of whom were elected to the new Par- 
liament ;X an d in 1628, the jubilant Commons met 
at Westminster.§ 

Meanwhile the king had a relapse. In his speech 
at the opening session of Parliament, he threatened 
that, unless speedily relieved from his embarrass- 
ments, he -would again resort to the " new coun- 
sels "\\ "A haughty solicitor, sinking under the 
weight of his faults and his misfortunes, he yet 
threatened to employ that independent and abso- 
lute monarchy which set him above all errors and 
reverses. So infatuated was he with his own su- 
premacy, that it never entered into his mind that it 
could suffer any change ; and full of arrogance, yet 
sincere, he thought it due to his honor and his rank 
to assume the tone and claim the rights of tyranny, 
even while borrowing the assistance of liberty. 

« Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 218. f Ibid., col. 212-217. 

% Hush-worth, vol. 1, p. 473 ; Clarendon. 
§ Hume, vol. 2, p. 202. 

|| Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 218 ; Guizot, Eushworth. 
II Guizot, vol. 1, p. 34. 



262 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



But the Commons were as proud and inflexible 
as the king was imperious. They were unmoved by 
the royal threats. " They were resolved solemnly 
to proclaim their liberties, to oblige the court to 
acknowledge them as primitive and independent, 
and to permit henceforth no right to pass for a con- 
cession, nor to allow any encroachment on the fun- 
damental laws. Neither leaders nor followers were 
lacking for this grand design. The whole nation 
rallied round the Parliament. Within this sanctu- 
ary bold and clever men consulted how it should 
be accomplished. Sir Edward Coke,* the pride of 
magistracy, no less illustrious for his firmness than 
for his knowledge ; Sir Thomas Wentworth, after- 
wards Lord Strafford, young, ardent, eloquent, born 
to command, and whose ambition was then satis- 
fied with the admiration of his country ;f Denzil 
Hollis, the youngest son of Lord Clare, in child- 
hood the companion of Charles, but the sincere 
friend of liberty, and too proud to serve under a 
favorite 4 Pym, a learned barrister, eminently skill- 
ed in the knowledge of the rights and customs of 
Parliament, cold, yet daring, and well knowing how 
to conduct himself with prudence as a leader of pop- 
ular, passions ;§ and many others, destined, within a 
time much less than any of them could anticipate, 

* "Born at Mileharn, in Norfolk, 1549 ; he was then seventy- 
nine years of age." 

■j- ' ' Born at London, 1593 ; he was then thirty-five years of age. " 

\ "Born at Hampton, 1597 ; he was then thirty-one years old." 

§ "Bom in Somersetshire, 1584 ; he was then forty-four years 
of age." Guizot. 



THE 44 NEW COUNSELS." 



263 



to diverse fortunes and even opposite parties, were 
now united by the same principles and hopes. To 
this fearful coalition the court could only oppose 
the power of custom, the capricious temerity of 
Buckingham, and the haughty obstinacy of the 
king."* 

Thus far the Commons had triumphed. "AH 
unlawful projects to quench the thirst of the king's 
necessities," says Fuller, "had proved no better 
than sucking-bottles, soon emptied, and but cold 
the liquor they afforded. Nothing so natural as 
the milk of the breast ; that is, subsidies granted 
by Parliament. But alas, to follow the metaphor, 
both the breasts, the two houses, were so sore 
with several grievances, that all money flowed from 
them with pain and difficulty ; the rather because 
complaints were made of doctrines destructive to 
their propriety, lately preached and sanctioned at 
court."t 

Five subsidies were voted the king; but the 
Commons refused to carry the bill through the 
house until the royal assent was obtained to a peti- 
tion of rights which reaffirmed the essential clauses 
of magna charta: that no freeman should be de- 
tained in prison by the king and privy-council, with- 
out an expression of the cause of commitment for 
which by law he ought to be detained ; that the 
habeas corpus should not be denied where the law 
allowed it ; that no tax, loan, or benevolence should 
be imposed without the consent of Parliament ; 
* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 34, 35. t Fuller, vol. 3, p. 352. 



264 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



that no man should be forejudged of life or limb, 
or be exiled or destroyed, but by the judgment of 
his peers, according to the law of the land, or by 
act of Parliament.* 

Charles was greatly elated when apprized of the 
vote of subsidies ;t but when he learned of the con- 
ditions of the grant, his rage was boundless. A 
fierce struggle ensued. The king, borrowing the 
tone of Elizabeth, forbade Parliament to meddle 
in affairs of state.:): But the firmness of the Com- 
mons eventually carried the day ; and Charles, foiled 
again and trembling for the subsidies, assented to 
the bill of rights ; and while he got his gold, the 
nation guaranteed its liberties. § 

While the Commons were busied in diffusing 
printed copies of this law over "England,! the upper 
house was employed in reprimanding the preach- 
ers of passive obedience; and one Manwaring, "a 
man so criminous that he turned his "titles into ac- 
cusations," to quote Pym's strong phrase, was sum- 
moned before the bar of the House, and forced to 
make an humble submission, couched in words 
drawn up by the Lords. If 

Charles had hoped that the concession of the 
petition of rights would give him a respite ; instead 
of which he was, within a few days, presented with 
two new remonstrances: one against Villiers, the 

* Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 278. \ Guizot, vol. 1, p. 36. 

X Pari. Hist., col. 401. 

§ Ibid., col. 409 ; Eushworth, vol. 1, p. 612. 
|| Guizot, vol. 1, p. 45. 

H Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 352-355 ; Terry, Neale, Carlyle, etc. 



THE -NEW COUNSELS." 265 

other against the arbitrary collection of the ton- 
nage and poundage taxes.* 

The king then lost patience, and hastening to 
Westminster Hall, he prorogued the Parliament. t 

Two months later, in June, 1628, Buckingham 
was murdered. '\. The people, while deprecating the 
act, rejoiced in their deliverance. But this assas- 
sination threw the king back into tyranny. "He 
again bestowed his favor upon the adversaries of 
Parliament. Montague, whom the Commons had 
prosecuted, was promoted to the bishopric of Chi- 
chister ; Manwaring, whom the House of Lords 
had condemned, was endowed with a rich benefice ; 
Laud, already famous for enthusiastic devotion to 
the most arbitrary maxims of ecclesiastical and civil 
government, was translated to the see of London. 
Public acts corresponded with covert favors. The 
tonnage and poundage duty was rigorously collect- 
ed, and the tribunals of exception continued to sus- 
pend the course of law. Silently entering upon an- 
other career of despotism, Charles had some reason 
to hope for success. He had detached from the 
Puritan party one of its most distinguished lead- 
ers and brilliant orators : Sir Thomas Wentworth 

• Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 420, 431. 

f Ibid., Rush worth, Hume, Clarendon. 

| "In the hat of Felton, his murderer, a paper was found on 
which the last remonstrance of the House was quoted. Felton did 
not seek to escape, nor to defend himself, but only said that he 
looked on the duke as the enemy of the kingdom, and shook his 
head when questioned as to his accomplice. He died with com- 
posure." Guizot. 

Puritans, 12 



266 



HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



was made a peer, a privy-counsellor, and the king's 
chief minister ; and now, surrounded by new friends, 
supported by a remodelled cabinet, abler, more seri- 
ous, less unpopular than Buckingham's coterie had 
been, Charles awaited the second session of his 
third Parliament without fear or dread."* 

In the winter of 1629, Parliament met according 
to prorogation, and they immediately opened their 
budget of grievances. They complained of the 
arbitrary action of the abnormal courts of High 
Commission and Star-chamber ;t of the duplicity 
of the king in ordering his printer to alter the 
legal text of the bill of rights, and to substitute 
his first evasive answer for his final assent;;]: of 
the favor granted to false doctrines ; of the bad 
distribution of dignities and employments ; and 
generally, of the contempt shown for the liberties 
of the people.g 

A committee on religion was appointed. Of this 
Oliver Cromwell, then in the lower house, was a 
leading member. There this- extraordinary man 
made his first appearance in the stormy history of 
the age, stuttering and stamping through his maiden 
speech. After mentioning the recent promotion of 
Montague, who squinted towards Arrninianism, and 
of Manwaring, who faced towards the Vatican, the 
future Colossus of the Revolution queried, "If these 



c Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 47, 48. 
f Pari. Hist,, col. 438 ; Clarendon. 
1 Ibid., vol. 2, col. 435 ; Euskworth. 
§ Bushworth, Pari. Hist., Clarendon. 



THE "NEW COUNSELS." 



267 



be the paths to church preferment, whither are we 
drifting ?"* 

The king heard this, and gnawed his lip in silent 
anger ; but shortly a violent scene in the House of 
Commons incensed him to madness. 

Sir John Elliot proposed a new remonstrance 
against the collection of tonnage and poundage by 
the king. The speaker of the House, pleading an 
order from the king, refused to have it read, and 
quitted the chair. Instantly all was uproar. Sev- 
eral members seized the retiring speaker, forced 
him back into the chair, held him there, and then, 
with doors double-barred, passed an act declaring 
the levying of tonnage and poundage on the king's 
sole authority to be illegal, and branding all who 
should either pay or levy such taxes as guilty of 
high treason.t 

In the mean time Charles, upon being acquainted 
with the uproar and its cause, ordered his guard to 
force the doors and disperse the members. But 
ere he could be obeyed, the Commons had adjourn- 
ed for the day 4 

* Thwarted in this, the king w T ent to the House of 
Lords,- and in a bitter speech, dissolved the Parlia- 
ment sine die. 

This done, he proceeded, in the face of the 
recently enacted bill of rights which he had sol- 
emnly subscribed, to arrest the most obnoxious 



* Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, vol. 1. 
t Pari. History, vol. 2, col. 487-491 ; Rushwortli, Clarendon, 
Hume. J Ibid. 



263 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



members of the Commons, and to fling them into 
the Tower.* Here the popular champions were 
treated with equal rigor and contempt ; and one of 
them, Sir John Elliot, died in this confinement, f a 
martyr to political liberty. 

At Hampton Court and "Whitehall high carnival 
was held. " Those who were papists in their hearts 
and those who were so openly — the servants and 
preachers of absolutism, men of intrigue and of 
pleasure, the indifferent to all creeds — already con- 
gratulated each other on this crowning triumph," 
and cried, " The people's guns are spiked." 

But the rough and awkward stammerer of the 
house committee on religion did not take this 
courtier view ; for Cromwell wrote home, " I fear 
me much that this battle is not yet begun.":): 

* Pari. History, vol. 2, col. 487-491 ; Eushworth, Clarendon, 
Hume. The members arrested were Hollis, Hobart, Elliot, Hay- 
man, Selden, Coriton, Long, Strode, and Valentine. See State 
Trials, vol. 3, pp. 235-335. 

f Old Pari. Hist., vol. 8, p. 374; Neale, vol. 1, p. 425, etc. 

X Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters, etc. 



LAUD'S PEELACY. 



269 



CHAPTEE XX. 

LAUD'S PEELACY. 

When Villiers was assassinated, his mantle fell 
upon the united shoulders of Strafford and Laud. 
These men became the brain of English absolutism. 
One affected the role of Richelieu, and domineered 
in politics ; the other became the Pontifex-maximus 
of the church, and labored with the fervid zeal of a 
Loyola to consolidate and to broaden the domain 
of the Establishment. 

Strafford carried with him into the king's camp 
the restless energy and the imperious will which 
had distinguished him in the House of Commons. 
Bold, fertile in expedients, tenacious of his pur- 
pose, he sought to systematize tyranny — to give to 
despotism the forms and the support of law. In 
this the timid arrogance of Charles baulked him, 
for. the king was never provident, for the future; 
satisfied with the possession of arbitrary power to- 
day, he never thought of guaranteeing it for the 
morrow. This inertia clogged all Strafford's exer- 
tions. " Eull of energy, he bore the yoke of weak- 
ness % and his foresight was lost in the service of the 
blind." 

Laud, born at Reading and educated at Oxford, 
where he resided until his fiftieth year,"* had long- 
's Neale, vol. 1, p. 402. 



270 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



been an enigma even to his friends. " I would I 
knew," wrote good bishop Hall to him on one occa- 
sion, " where to find you ; to-day you are with the 
Romanists, to-morrow with us; our adversaries 
think you ours, and we think you theirs : your con- 
science finds you with both and neither. How long 
will you halt in this uncertainty ?"* 

Bred to the church, his ecclesiastical preferment 
had been marked. Severe in his conduct, simple in 
his life, rough in his manners, he was pushed for- 
ward by his own zealous and indefatigable ardor. 
He was terribly in earnest, and he was fanatically 
devoted to power. " To command and to punish 
was in his eyes to establish order, and order always 
seemed to him justice. In business he was tireless, 
but narrow, violent, and stern. At once incapable 
of balancing interests or respecting rights, he rashly 
persecuted liberties as abuses. Thwarting some by 
his probity, others by his blind animosity, he was 
as rude and irritable with courtiers as with citizens. 
He sought no friendship ; he neither foresaw nor 
could bear any resistance ; and he was constantly 
absorbed by some fixed notion which took posses- 
sion of him with the violence, the passion, and the 
authority of a duty."f 

The statesman and the priest never interfered 
with each, other. Strafford worked out his prob- 
lems by himself ; Laud asked no advice, and would 
take none. Strafford endeavored to manipulate 
English politics into despotic precepts ; Laud Strug- 
s' Neale, vol. 1, p. 402. f Guizot, vol. 1, p. 61. 



LAUD'S PEELACY. 



glecl to emancipate the Establishment from its vas- 
salage to the crown, and then to compel a universal 
conformity. Strafford was a hidden king; Laud 
was a hidden pope. 

At the [Reformation, the temporal sovereign 
had in some respects assumed towards the English 
church the relations before held by the pope." 

" Churchmen were soon aware of this defect in 
its constitution ; but the perils to which it was ex- 
posed, and the high hand with which Henry VIII., 
and afterwards Elizabeth, carried matters, had given 
it no chance of redress. Attacked at once by the 
papists and the non-conformists, itself doubtful on 
many points, still wavering in its possessions and 
doctrines, the church feared to provoke the enmity 
of its new head, and devoted itself without restric- 
tion to the service of temporal power, acknowledg- 
ing its own dependence, and yielding to the abso- 
lute supremacy of the throne, which could now alone 
save it from the environing perils. 

" Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, a few . 
isolated symptoms announced rather higher pre- 
tensions on the part of the clergy. Bancroft main- 
tained that episcojmcy was not a human institution, 
but that it had been from apostolic times the gov- 
ernment of the church, and that bishops held their 
rights, not from a temporal sovereign, but from 
God.t These claims were haughtily repressed by 

* Guizot, vol. 1, p. 70. 

f The sermon alluded to was preached on the 12th of January, 
1588. Perry, Nealc. 



272 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



tlie despotism of the arrogant queen; but under 
James I. they were once more mooted. Zealous 
in proclaiming the jus divinum of the throne, the 
church began to plead loudly for the recognition of 
its own divinity; and those precepts which Ban- 
croft had timidly insinuated were now openly 
avowed by the bench of bishops."* 

"When Charles and his Parliament began their 
quarrel, and the Commons deserted the throne, the 
Establishment, pointing to its own loyal record, 
hinted that its support through these dark hours 
could be won by the recognition of its claims. 
Charles, who was sincerely attached to the Eng- 
lish church, was easily persuaded to cede, if not for- 
mally, at least essentially, his ecclesiastical suprem- 
acy to the episcopal authorities, f Then Laud, who 
held the see of London, began to think of increas- 
ing the external pomp of the church, and of subdu- 
ing Puritanism to uniformity. 

A cruel torture now began. If any Puritan 
chanced to hold a living, he was at once dismissed. 
If the non-conformist, gagged in the pulpit, turned 
to other pursuits, persecution dogged him and block- 
ed each new avenue in which he essayed to tread. 
Starvation or conformity — this was the inexorable 
alternative. % 

" Puritan churches were seized, and the pomp 

* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 76, 77. 

f Ibid., p. 79; Perry, Lathbury. 

% Neale, Kuslrworth, Carlyle. See the account in Neale, vol. 
1, p. 452, of a Mr. Workman. 



LAUD'S PEEL ACY. 



273 



of the Eomanist worship was restored ; though 
persecution kept away the congregation, a profuse 
magnificence adorned the walls. New churches 
were consecrated with splendid ceremony, and then 
the people were driven by force to attend them. 
Laud was fond of prescribing minutely the details 
of new ceremonies, sometimes borrowed from the 
Eoman ritual, sometimes invented by his own osten- 
tatious, yet narrow imagination. The least inno- 
vation, the least deviation of the non-conformists 
from the canons of the Liturgy was punished as a 
crime ; while Laud innovated without consulting- 
anybody, generally with the king's consent, but 
sometimes on his own authority. He changed the 
interior arrangements of the churches, the forms of 
worship, imperiously prescribing forms till then 
unknown, and even assumed to alter the Liturgy, 
which many parliaments had sanctioned; while the 
result, if not the aim of all these alterations, was to 
render the English church more conformable to 
that of Rome."* 

The utmost partiality was shown to the Koman- 
ists. The press groaned beneath the load of pam- 
phlets issued to prove the similarity between Rome 
and the Establishment ;f and these were dedicated 
to Laud or to the king, and were not infrequently 
composed by theologians in exact agreement with 
the court.:]: 

* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 83, 84. 

f Whitelocke's Memorials, etc., p. 21 ; Guizot, Neale. 
X Ibid. 

12* 



274 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



At the same time the Puritans might not even 
defend the Thirty-nine Articles against the assaults 
of the Romanist publicists, or brush away the ob- 
jections of the Paris Sorbonne.* 

England at large anticipated the speedy recog- 
nition of the papal primacy ;f so that when a daugh- 
ter of the duke of Devonshire embraced the Roman 
faith, she replied to Laud, who had asked her the 
reasons for her change, " 'T is chiefly because I hate 
to travel in a crowd ; and as I perceive that your 
grace and many others are making haste to Borne, 
I wish to get there first, to escape being jostled.":]; 

The nearer the English church went to Borne, 
the tighter it choked Puritanism ; and now the per- 
secution grew so bitter and so searching, that many 
said good-by to England, and crossed the sea to 
join their exiled brothers on the Atlantic slope of 
the western continent^ Bereaved of an asylum at 
home, whole families flocked every summer to the 
American colonies, swelling the New England set- 
tlements of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connect- 
icut, and New Haven. || It has been estimated that 
four thousand planters quitted the island for the 
New World during the fierce regime of Laud, and 
that these carried with them five hundred pounds 
in gold, an immense sum for those days. Had 
Laud reigned twenty-four years, instead of twelve, 

<* Whitelocke's Memorials, etc., p. 21 ; Guizot, Neale. 

f Guizot, vol. 1, p. 84 ; Neale. 

X Whitelocke. Hume, vol. 2, p. 218. 

§ Neale, vol. 1, p. 436. || Ibid. 



LAUD'S PKELACY. 



275 



historians assert that England would have perma- 
nently lost one-fourth of her population, and would 
have been drained of a third of her wealth." 

The ebb and flow of this exodus, which carried 
off the soberest, most industrious, and most relig- 
ious citizens of the island, was an excellent Nileom- 
eter, and showed the precise height of the tide of 
persecution. 

But Laud found England too narrow ; and if it 
had not been, he was too philanthropic to confine 
his exclusive attentions to one kingdom. Like Al- 
exander, he pined for new worlds to conquer ; and 
lo, when he lifted his eyes, he saw Scotland nod- 
ding in the arms of Presbyterianism. Instantly a 
frenzy seized him to clutch it, highland and low- 
land. As was usual with him, this frenzy at once 
assumed the garb of duty; so the restless prelate 
went to work. Like the Jesuits, he never scrupled 
as to means when the end was to his liking. So one 
day he opened the matter to the king, and then 
advised him to visit Scotland on pretext of being 
crowned at Edinburgh, and to carry with him a 
bevy of English bishops, that the coronation cere- 
mony might be performed according to the Eng- 
lish ritual. t To be sure, this was unlawful, since 
it was customary for the Scottish monarchs to be 
crowned under the Presbyterian code. But this 
did not trouble the elastic consciences of the king 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 435-437. 

f Hallam, Con. History. Calderwood, Hist. Ch, of Scotland ; 
Neale. 



276 HISTOKY OF THE PUBITANS. 



and the prelate, for they both held the monarch to 
be irresponsible and enthroned above all law. 

There were already some bishops in Scotland, 
and these, says Calderwood, " were become so aw- 
ful with their grandeur and the king's assistance, 
that there was little resistance, howbeit great mur- 
muring and malcontentment."^ 

On the 18th of June, 1633, Charles was crowned 
with much pomp at Edinburgh, " the ceremony be- 
ing managed by his favorite bishop, who thrust 
away the bishop of Glasgow from his projDer place 
in the pageant because he appeared without the 
embroidered habit of his order, which he scrupled 
to wear, as he was a moderate churchman. "f 

On the convocation of the Scottish parliament, 
the kino; assumed the tone of absolutism, dancing 
in this scene as Laud pulled the strings. The 
Houses were overawed and dragooned into silence ; 
then two acts were declared passed, one acknow- 
edging the royal prerogative, the other ratifying 
the attempted innovations of James I. When the 
affirmative vote on these bills was doubted, the 
king said that " the clerk's declarations must stand, 
unless any one would go to the bar of the House, 
and at the peril of his life accuse that underling of 
falsifying the record of Parliament." j 

Both Lords and Commons on the adjournment 
complained of this action as a breach of their priv- 
ilege, affirming that parliaments were an absurd 

* Calclervrood, p. 614. f Neale, vol. 1, p. 454. 

} Ibid., pp. 454, 455. Burnet's Own Times, pp. 11, 12. 



LAUD'S PEELACY. 



Til 



pageantry, if the clerk might bend the vote, like a 
nose of wax, which way he pleased, and no scrutiny 
be allowed. 

Meantime Charles, angry and sore, dissolved 
the Scotch Houses as he had the English, and 
quitted the country, having lost caste during his 
brief tarry on the north side of the Tweed, which 
proved fatal to him in a darker hour.* 

But Laud had been partially successful : the 
introduction of the English liturgy had been more 
than mooted ; a new bishopric had been created at 
Edinburgh ; and his majesty's royal chapel in that 
ancient capital had been supplied with a service- 
book framed by himself, which he declared to be 
intended as a pattern for all cathedrals, chapels, 
and parish churches in that kingdom. f 

On reaching London after this Scottish raid, the 
restless and ambitious prelate found a new honor 
awaiting him. Archbishop Abbot was just dead, 
and Laud was immediately advanced to the pri- 
mate's seat in the see of Canterbury.:]: This spur- 
red his zeal to still vaster efforts ; and not the tiara 
of the pope, nor the red hat of a cardinal, but the 
triumphal crown of patriarch of three kingdoms 
glittered before his eyes and robbed him of all 
rest. 

Laud now became the state. Charles reigned, ; 
Laud governed. His patronage was so vast that his 
imprimatur lifted whom he chose into civil or eccle- 

e Rebellions in Scotland, 1638-1660. Calderwood, Neale. 
t Ibid. I Perry, Neale, Heylin. 



278 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



siastical preferment.* His dependents swarmed in 
every essential office.f On his nod, complained the 
Commons, " pulpits prate that all we have is by the 
king's jure divino ; and we see how willing time- 
servers be to change a good conscience for a good 
bishopric.":]: 

The whole kingdom was now overhauled. In- 
novations proceeded on a broader scale.§ Nothing- 
was too great, nothing was too small for the Argus 
eyes of the new primate. He not only insisted that 
all English merchants resident on the Continent 
should employ no chaplains but such as used the 
English liturgy, and bullied foreign powers into 
enforcing this arbitrary dictum,\\ but "he pushed 
conformity to such an objectionable strictness, that 
the Dutch and Huguenot churches settled in Eng- 
land were bidden to choose between exile and the 
Establishment ; and this notwithstanding immunity 
of worship had been guaranteed them by Elizabeth 
and by James I. If this did not actually amount 
to treachery, it had a very ugly look about it ; and 
the wholesale reduction of a number of churches 
differing in confession and ritual from the English 
church, into its bosom, merely because the accident 
of their position gave the state power over them, 
was a stretch likely to scandalize even the well-dis- 
posed members of that church."! 

» Heylin, Life of Laud, p. 255. t Perry, p. 452. 

X Speech of Sir F. Seymour. liushworth, vol. 1, p. 499. 
§ See Hume, chap. 52, a large portion of which is devoted to 
this subject. || Kuslnvorth, vol. 2. Heylin's Laud, p. 233. 

IT Perry, pp. 453, 454. 



LAUD'S PEELACY. 



279 



All England began to grumble. When men saw 
the rigor with which even the most insignificant 
observances were pressed, at the risk of civil war, 
upon the refractory nation, they began to think that 
a sane bench of bishops would never manifest such 
relentless and dangerous zeal without some momen- 
tous secret purpose ; and the Puritans were firmly 
persuaded that Laud's scheme was to lead back the 
English by gradual steps to the religion of their 
ancestors.* "It must be confessed," says Hume, 
"that, though Laud deserved not the appellation 
of papist, the genius of his novelties was, in a mod- 
ified degree, the genius of Borne : the same profound 
respect was exacted to the sacerdotal character, the 
same submission required to the creeds and to the 
decrees of synods and councils, the same pomp and 
ceremony was affected in worship, and the same 
superstitious regard was paid to days, postures, 
meats, and vestments. No wonder therefore that 
this prelate was everywhere among the Puritans 
regarded as the forerunner of antichrist." t 

The result of this was momentously evil. The 
ghostly masquerading of Laud's puppet priests be- 
gan to convulse the nation. Honest churchmen 
like Hall, sober Puritanism, and the constitutional 
party, commenced to rally the national conscience. 
England protested. Over the heads of the game- 
sters the heavens grew black ; beneath the board 
on which they threw their dice heaved the volcano 
of 1640. 

* Hume, vol. 2, V . 218. t Ibid., p. 219. 



280 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE TKIUMPH OF THE COURT. 

The king's campaign against the ancient liber- 
ties of England knew no cessation. No armistice 
was ever thought of. Officered by Strafford and 
Land, the court swept on from triumph to triumph. 
A proclamation was issued making it penal to speak 
of assembling another Parliament.* Taxes were 
levied on the sole authority of the royal seal.f 
Tonnage and poundage was still collected ; and 
in 1634, ship-money was levied on the whole king- 
dom.^; " This was entirety arbitrary ; by the same 
right any other tax might be imposed."§ 

It was -against this despotic act that John Hamp- 
den, one of the brightest and grandest characters 
in history, the Phocion of his age, fleshed his maid- 
en sword. Hampden owned an estate in Bucking- 
ham, on which he was rated at twenty shillings tax, 
the money to go towards building a navy. Con- 
vinced that in this the court invaded the domain of 
Parliament, the Bayard of the Revolution refused 
to pay his assessment. " He resolved, rather than 
submit to so illegal an imposition, to stand a legal 
prosecution, and to expose himself to all the indig- 
nation of the court."|| 

* Kuslrworth, vol. 2, p. 3 ; Hume, Clarendon. f Ibid. 
X Hume, vol. 2, p. 223, and on. § Ibid. 

|| Ibid., pp. 227, 228. 



TEIUMPH OF THE COIT^T. 



281 



The case was argued during twelve days in the 
exchequer chamber, before all the judges of Eng- 
land ; and the nation regarded with the utmost 
anxiety every circumstance of this celebrated trial. 
" The event was easily foreseen ; but the principles 
and reasonings, and the behavior of the parties en- 
gaged in the trial, were much canvassed." Hamp- 
den was condemned by the judicial bench.* But 
liberty, though in chains, knew nothing but victo- 
ry. The spirit of the masses was raised and fired. 
Hampden's name and fame spread though the isl- 
and. Even the partisans of the court scarce ven- 
tured to avow the legality of their success.! Every 
day the populace grew more militant. The tyranny 
" of Charles was, if not the most cruel, at least the 
most unjust and despotic that England had ever 
endured. Without being able to allege, for excuse, 
any public necessity, without dazzling the people's 
minds by any great event — to satisfy obscure wants, 
to gratify a whim — he misunderstood and tresj)ass- 
ed on the ancient rights, and opposed the present 
wishes of the country, setting at defiance both the 
laws and the opinion of the island ; disregarding his 
own promises, he hazarded once and again every 
species of oppression, adopting the most violent 
resolutions, the most illegal measures ; and all this, 
not to secure the triumph of a consistent and for- 
midable system, but to maintain by daily expedi- 
ents an authority never free from embarrassment. 

* State Trials, vol. 3, col. 84G-1254. 
t May, Hist, Long Pari. ; Guizot, etc. 



282 HISTORY. OF THE PURITANS. 



Subtle counsellors were for ever rummaging among 
old records to discover a precedent for some for- 
gotten iniquity, laboriously digging up the buried 
abuses of the past, and erecting them into the rights 
of the crown. Was the compliance of the judges at 
all doubted ? The exceptional courts, set above 
the common law, were given usurped cognizance ; 
and illegal magistrates became the accomplices of 
tyranny, when the legal judges refused to become 
its abettors."* 

" Whom the gods would destroy, they first make 
mad." The court never paused in this insane tilt 
against the spirit of the age. Strafford continued 
to be severely insolent ; Laud never slacked his 
hand. " The archbishop," says Hallam, " was in- 
tolerant not so much from bigotry as from system- 
atic policy ;"t but he was " more ambitious to un- 
dertake than politic to carry on.":): 

The kingdom had long swarmed with pamphlets 
against the indecencies of the court and against the 
biting tj T ranny of Laud. Severe repressive meas- 
ures had been taken. Still men wrote ; and print- 
ers, tempted by the enormous profits sure to be 
made on the interdicted works, smuggled these 
obnoxious satires through the press. Tracts were 
scattered in the streets of every town and county 
hamlet ; thousands were imported from Holland.§ 



* Guizot, vol. 1, p. 71. 
f Hallarn, Cons. Hist., vol. 1, p. 450. 
i May, Hist. Long Pari., p. 19. 
§ State Trials, vol. 3, col. 711. 



TEIUMPH OF THE COUET. 283 



One clay — it was about the time of Hampden's 
trial — the royal council seized three of these offend- 
ers, Prynne, a lawyer, Barton, a theologian, and 
Bostwick, a physician. They were tried in the Star- 
chamber. Laud wished to have them indicted for 
high treason ; but when told that it would be im- 
possible to strain the law so as to convict them on 
that charge, it was decided to arraign them for fel- 
ony* 

Trial, in Anglo-Saxon dialect, has a proud his- 
toric meaning. It includes indictment by impartial 
peers ; a copy of such indictment, and a list of wit- 
nesses furnished the prisoner, with ample time to 
scrutinize both ; liberty to choose, and time to get 
counsel ; mens sana in corpore sano, to arrange a de- 
fence ; and a judge and jury impartial as the lot of 
humanity will allow : honored bulwarks and safe- 
guards, each one the trophy and result of a centu- 
ry's struggle. f 

But now the accused were bidden to make an 
immediate defence ; pen, ink, and paper were de- 
nied them ; they were told that their pleadings must 
be signed by a counsellor, yet all access to their 
prison was barred for several days ; when a law- 
yer was admitted, he refused to sign their papers 
through fear of compromising himself with the 
court ; on requesting permission to write out and 
sign their own justification, they were denied the 
right, and told that unless a counsellor subscribed 

* State Trials, vol. 3, col. 711. 

| Phillips, Speeches, Lectures, etc., p. 2SG, Boston, 18G3. 



284 HIST OK Y OF THE PUKITANS. 



it, tliey would be sentenced as self- convicted crim- 
inals. " Your lordships," said Prynne, " ask for 
an impossibility ; fear of your displeasure ties all 
hands." The court, unmoved and implacable, reit- 
erated its declaration. Unable to comply, these 
English freemen, guilty of expressing their opin- 
ions through the press, were condemned to the pil- 
lory, to lose their ears, to pay a fine of five thou- 
sand pounds, and to perpetual imprisonment.* 

When the day appointed for the execution of the 
sentence came, an immense crowd assembled. The 
executioner was ordering them away. "Let them 
remain," said Barton ; " they must learn to suffer." 
The official did not insist, so the people remained. 
" My dear sir," said a woman to Barton, " this is 
the best sermon you ever preached." " I hope so," 
he answered ; " and may God convert the hearers." 
One young man turned pale as he looked on. "My 
son," queried Barton, " why are you so pale '? my 
heart is not weak ; and if I needed more strength, 
God would not let me want it." The crowd drew 
nearer and nearer. Some one gave Bostwick a 
bunch of flowers ; a bee lighted on it. " See this 
poor little bee," said he; "even on the pillory it 
comes and sips honey from the flowers ; and why 
should not I enjoy here the honey of Jesus Christ *?" 

" Christians," cried Prynne, " if we had prized 
our liberty we should not be here ; it is for the free- 
dom of you all that we have exposed our own : keep 
it well, I implore }'ou ; remain firm ; be true to God 
* State Trials, vol. 3, col. 711-717. 



TRIUMPH OF THE COURT. 



285 



and dear England ; or else you and your children 
will fall into eternal servitude." The air rang with 
acclamations.* . 

The victims of this outrage, and of similar bar- 
barities, were yeomen, with no especial talents to 
distinguish them, but filled and dignified by that 
faith which can move mountains ; and they were 
now, by the folly of the government, clothed with 
the persuasive attributes of martyrdom. Nothing 
pleads so eloquently as suffering incurred for an 
idea. Many an insignificant idea has been perse- 
cuted into world-wide fame and influence ; there is 
no instance of a truth harried into the grave. 

Aside then from its wickedness, this crusade was 
an evidence of madness which should have bastiled 
its chiefs ; for imprisonment is the strait-jacket of 
the morally insane. 

It was in these times the distinguishing mark of 
a Puritan, to see him going to church twice a day 
on Sunday ;f and in those districts where Puritan- 
ism predominated, the mere force of opinion kept 
down the legal recreations permitted on that. day. 
Laud perceiving this, moved the king to publish 
still another declaration,, encouraging those sports 
which sober, devout Puritanism eschewed. This 
Charles did ; whereon the justices of the peace 
signed a petition in which they declared that these 
revels had not only introduced great profanation of 
the Sabbath, but riotous tippling, contempt of au- 
thority, quarrels, and murders ; and they therefore 

* Guizot, vol. I, pp. 101, 102. f Neale, vol. 1, p. 313. 



286 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



prayed that Sunday recreations might be suppress- 
ed as prejudicial to peace, sobriety, piety, and good 
government. To this the bishops were vehemently 
opposed, maintaining that the sports civilized their 
parishioners, and brought them more willingly to 
church.* 

Singularly enough, we here observe the laity 
petitioning for the religious observance of the Sab- 
bath, and the clergy pleading for its profanation. 

The king sided with his primate, and a contro- 
versy which had slept for many years was now re- 
vived, and lent its voice to swell the general chorus 
of debate. f 

Laud's presumption knew no bounds. He had 
Ions: been accustomed to alter the Book of Common 
Prayer on his own authority ;X now he assumed to 
fetch the business of Westminster Hall into the 
ecclesiastical courts ; he held these courts in their 
own names, instead of, as before, in that of the king; 
he enlarged his own jurisdiction by claiming the 
right to visit the universities of -Oxford and Cam- 
bridge jure -metropolitico ; and he incurred the rjen- 
alty of a jprcemunire by framing new articles of vis- 
itation, to which the episcopal seal was alone af- 
fixed.§ 

If any within or without the church ventured to 
complain of these usurpations, deprivation gagged 
them, the courts of exception sentenced them, the 

* Xeale, vol. 1, p. 460.; Perry, Harris. f Ibid. 

X Lathbury, Book of Common Prayer ; Perry, Guizot. 
§ Neale, vol. 1, pp. 482, 483; Guizot, Hume. 



TRIUMPH OF THE COURT. 287 

pillory received them, and remorseless persecution 
dogged the di ever after.* 

Now again the Puritans began to quit the island. 
" The emigration was so rapid," says Perry, " that 
men whose views were far from Puritanical com- 
menced to suspect that the gospel was passing west- 
ward : and about this time the devout Herbert wrote 
that much-noted couplet, 

" 'Religion stands a tiptoe in the land. 
Ready to pass to the American strand.' "f 

The court was alarmed ; the king vetoed further 
emigration.;]: Conscientious men might no longer 
live honestly at home nor find peace in exile. 

But liberty owes Charles I. its hearty thanks for 
this despotic act ; for at that very time eight ves- 
sels lay anchored in the Thames, ready to sail for 
the Xew Y\'orld ; and on board of one of these were 
Hazlerig, Pym, Hampden, and CromwelLJ the illus- 
trious quartette of the Revolution. 

History pauses and smiles grimly at this fact, 
and wonders whether the fated king would have 
shackled emigration if he had foreseen the ghastly 
future ; and she asks herself, " How should I have 
writ the record, had these men quitted England?" 

In order that he might be able to devote him- 
self wholly to the coercion of his subjects, Charles 
had recently solicited a peace with Spain and 

* Neale, vol. 1, pp. 482, 483 ; Guizot, Hume, 
f Perry, p. 438. % Rushworth, part 2, vol. 1, p. 409. 

§ Neale, vol. 1, chap. 3. Reign of Charles I. Walpole, Cata- 
logue of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. 1, p. 20G. 



288 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



France. This lie procured from the house of Aus- 
tria by disgraceful concessions, and from Bichelieu 
by abandoning those whom he had inveigled into 
the war, and submitting to terms which the haughty 
cardinal dictated.* 

"After such ill-conduct and disgrace," remarks 
one of the unhappy monarch's biographers, " we may 
well imagine that England was not much dreaded 
by its neighbors. This the king soon found ; for 
the neutrality of his ports was violated both by the 
Spaniards and the Dutch ; his subjects were insult- 
ed and wronged by them and by the French ; nor 
did he ever receive any satisfaction for the affront 
put on him by the Dutch admiral in destroying the 
fleet of Spain in his harbor, contrary to his express 
command. Indeed the reputation of Britain had 
suffered so terribly, that pirates of all the neigh- 
boring nations took the liberty to infest the narrow 
seas ; and the ships and coasts of the island were 
exposed to the rapine and barbarity of the Turk 
himself, who carried numbers into captivity. So 
feeble was the government, or so careless of the 
welfare of the people. t 

Charles employed the leisure which he had pur- 
chased by disgrace in a blind attempt to coerce 
Scotland into exact conformity with the English 
ritual. What his father had wished for the sake 
of polity, he deemed indispensable on grounds of 

* Sidney's State Papers, vol. 2, p. 612. D'Estrade, Letters and 
Negotiations, p. 29, 8vo, London, 1755. 

f Harris, Life and Writings of Charles 1., vol. 2, pp. 162-180. 



TBIUMPH OF THE COUET. 



289 



conscience. James had invaded Scotland with the 
power of a prince ; Charles directed against it the 
implacable fury of a zealot.* In the execution of 
this design, fraud, violence, threats, corruption, ev- 
ery thing had been pressed. Despotism had even 
shown itself patient and supple ; sometimes ad- 
dressing itself to ecclesiastical ambition, sometimes 
to the interests of the small landed proprietors, 
offering to one high church dignities and honorable 
offices in the state, and to the others an easy re- 
demption of their tithes ; always advancing tow- 
ards its goal, yet with cautious, slow, and subtle 
steps. f 

Much had been already gained. The bishops had 
recovered their jurisdiction ; new bishoprics were 
constantly created, and in these Laud installed his 
dependents. " One Forbes," says Burnet, " was made 
diocesan of the new bishopric at Edinburgh. His 
way of life and devotion was thought monastic, and 
his learning lay in antiquity ; he studied to be a rec- 
onciler between Papist and Protestant, and he lean- 
ed rather towards Rome, as appears by his Consid- 
er ationes Modestce."% The archbishop of St. An- 
drew's held the great seal of Scotland.§ The bish- 
op of Ross was made high-treasurer. || Out of four- 
teen prelates, nine had seats in the Privy-council, 
which they ruled. 1 The service-book was already 

* Chambers, Rebellions in Scotland, 1G38-16G6, vol. 1, p. 55. 
f Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 107, 108. 

% Burnet's Own Times, p. 12. § Spottiswood. 

|| Maxwell, Guizot. IT Clarendon, vol. 1, pp. 148-150. 

PnritaiiB. 13 



290 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



in use by the Scottish churchmen. Charles and 
Laud thought that the auspicious moment had 
come for completing their crafty work by imposing 
this nucleus church, with new canons and a Liturgy 
conformable to the English discipline, at once upon 
Scotland at large, without consulting either the 
Presbyterian clergy or the people.* 

In 1636 the Book of Canons was promulgated. 
By it the whole system of Presbyterian church- 
government was at once laid prostrate. f But it was 
acquiesced in with a quietude ominous of an ap- 
proaching storm. This was the herald of the ser- 
vice-book, which made its appearance some months 
later, prefaced by a charge from the king, in which 
all who rejected the innovating ritual were branded 
as rebels. $ 

The Scottish Liturgy was not totidem verbis the 
same as the English ; but though differing in some 
respects, it was the same in scope.§ The altera- 
tions were of two kinds : those intended to ingratiate 
the book, and those whose tendency was to make it 
distasteful.^ Laud added some things to the Scotch 
ritual which he intended eventually to graft into 
the English Prayer-book ; it being thought best, 
when making an alteration, to go at once to the 
full extent of what was intended to be the final 
creed of the twin kingdoms. 

* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 108, 109 ; Malcom ; Laing, Hist. Scotland, 
vol. 3. f Chambers, vol. 1, p. 58 ; Calderwood. 

J Ibid. Hume, vol. 2. 

§ Fuller, vol. 3, p. 39G. || Ibid. 



TRIUMPH OF THE COURT. 291 



But "the church of Scotland," says Fuller, 
" claimed not only to be independent and free as 
any church in Christendom — a sister, not a daugh- 
ter, of England — but also had so high an opinion of 
its purity, that it participated more of Moses' plat- 
form on the mount than other congregations, being 
a reformed reformation ; whose practice might be 
directing to others, and she sit to give, not take — 
write, not receive, copies from other churches ; she 
desiring that all others were like unto her, save 
only in her afflictions."* 

With trifling exceptions therefore, such as the 
Romanist noblemen and a portion of the northern 
Highlands, the whole inhabitants of Scotland, of 
whatever rank, may be described as at this time 
banded in one common cause against the forms 
which Charles was inaugurating. The people for 
conscience' sake — for to their untutored conception 
the whole ritual was a Papist rubric — and the high- 
er classes from motives of interest ; all were alike 
leagued in opposition to the innovations. The very 
officers of the state were. not true to the service of 
their master, and Scotch Episcopacy itself entered 
into the feelings of the nation, if not with ostenta- 
tious activity, at least with secret good will.t 

The Scotch, like their Puritan brothers of the 
south, had a horror of any thing which smacked of 
Pome ; and since they were ruder and more unlet- 
tered than the Puritans, they carried their hatred 

* Fuller, vol. 3, pp. 399, 400. 
f Chambers, vol. 1, p. Gl. 



292 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



to a higher degree.* To them, whatever differed 
with their own simple discipline seemed surcharged 
with idolatry. It can easily be conceived then what 
an effect the pomp of Laud's prelacy was sure to 
have. 

The king had commanded every clergyman 
throughout Scotland to buy two copies of the Ser- 
vice-book for the use of his parish ; and the new 
ritual was to be introduced at Edinburgh on the 
approaching Easter ; but the time was changed, so 
that the ceremony did not occur until Sunday, the 
23d of July, 1637.t 

On that day, in the midst of the service, the ca- 
thedral church of Edinburgh was mobbed, missiles 
were hurled at the officiating clergy, and the mili- 
tary were called in to clear the aisles.:): " One old 
woman, who had endeavored to go out with the rest 
of the ejected Non-conformists, but without suc- 
ceeding, took up her station in a remote corner of 
the cathedral, where, opening her Bible, she endeav- 
ored to shut out from her ears the sounds of the 
detested service-book which the bishop had recom- 
menced intoning. As she was engaged in reading 
the sacred pages, a young man who sat behind her 
happened to pronounce the word Amen so audibly 
at the close of one of the prayers as to disturb her 
devotions. Quite enraged at the near presence of 
what she esteemed so vile an abomination, she start- 



* Hume, vol. 2, p. 231. 

f Burnet's Own Times, Spottiswood, Clarendon. 
X Chambers, vol, 1, p. C4 ; Harris, Perry. 



TEIUMPH OF THE COURT. 293 



ed from her seat, gave the astounded offender a 
severe blow on the cheek, and thundered in his ears, 
' Fause thief, is there nae ither part o' the kirk 
where ye may say your mass, but ye maun say 't at 
my lug?' The young man, says the pamphleteer 
who tells the story, being dashed with such an 
unexpected rencontre, lapsed into pensive silence 
as a token of his recantation."* 

In the streets wild uproar reigned : and when 
the congregation was dismissed from the cathedral, 
the innovating churchmen were hooted and pelted, 
amid the cheers of the rioters.f 

This Edinburgh mob, from which the better 
classes stood aloof, was at once a warning and a 
prophecy. But the crazy court heeded neither. 
The remonstrances of the Scotch were met by a 
proclamation to "enforce the ritual. $ Then high- 
land and lowland began to heave in insurrection. 
The people loved their king, but they adored their 
religion. Resistance at once organized itself ; with 
a fine instinct, Scotland recognized the fact that 
regulated liberty quadruples all social forces. Four 
tables were formed at Edinburgh ; the nobility, the 
gentry, the ministry, and the burgesses had each 
one ; and into their hands the whole authority was 
confided. § This unique government, the offspring 
of an excited moment, worked as regularly and as 

* Chambers, vol. 1, p. C5. t Ibid. 

% Hume, vol. 2, p. 233 ; Hallarn, Chambers, Clarendon. 
§ Hume, volume 2, page 233 ; Calderwood, Clarendon, Rush-- 
worth. 



294 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



orderly as it could had it been grouted in the hab- 
its of a dozen centuries."* 

The English court witnessed these movements 
aghast. The king began to temporize. Negotia- 
tions ensued ; but both sides were sour and suspi- 
cious, and diplomacy proved abortive.f Then war 
was resolved on. " These hounds," said Strafford, 
" must be whipped back to commomsense."^ 

On their part, the Scotch remembered Bannock- 
bum, and took heart. They " trusted in God and 
their good right." Thousands rushed to Edin- 
burgh. The famous Covenant was signed by which 
Popery was renounced ; and all its subscribers were 
linked in a union to resist all innovations in relig- 
ion, and to defend each other from all attacks what- 
soever^ 

" The people, without distinction of rank or con- 
dition, age or sex, flocked to the subscription of this 
paper ; few disapproved of it, and still fewer dared 
openly condemn it. The king's ministers and coun- 
sellors were themselves seized by the general con- 
tagion ; and none but rebels to God and traitors to 
their country, it was thought, could withdraw them- 
selves from so salutary and so pious a combina- 
tion."! 

In England also chaos seemed come again. In 
the cause of the Scotch the Puritans plainly saw 

* Hume. f Chambers, vol. 1, pp. 72-128. 

X Strafford's Letters, vol. 2, pp. 138, 156. 

§ Chambers, Hume, Clarendon, Perry, Oarlyle. 

|| Hume, vol. 2, p. 233. 



TRIUMPH OF THE COURT. 



295 



their own.* A secret correspondence between the 
northern and the southern Non-conformists was 
speedily established ;t the cold dislike of ages, the 
mutual contempt of Scot and Englishman, was 
melted into hearty brotherhood and cordial coop- 
eration by the persuasive eloquence of a common 
danger and a common creed. 

" Many," affirms Burnet, " who stoutly adhered 
in the sequel to the king's cause, were then much 
troubled by the whole conduct of affairs, as being 
neither wise, legal, nor just ; and the violence with 
which Scotland did engage against the court may 
easily convince men that the provocation must have 
been very great to draw that loyal nation into such 
entire and vehement revolt/' j 

But the king, like Strafford and like Laud, loved 
high, rough measures, though he had neither the 
skill to juggle success, nor the genius to command 
it in such outre government.! His improvident folly 
was never more clearly shown than through these 
early scenes which formed the prologue to the fierce 
tragedy of civil war. The court had coldly, sys- 
tematically provoked a war by attempting to revo- 
lutionize the polity of a proud, honest, irascible peo- 
ple ; and when war came, England stood in undis- 
guised sympathy with the insurgents; while the 
court, without money, without troops, without co- 
operation, gazed with stupid despair across the 

* May, Hist. Long Pari., vol. 1, p. 96. f Ibid. 

% Burnet's Own Times, p. 15. 
§ Ibid., p. 17. 



296 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS 



Tweed, and attempted to chatter down the angry, 
armed emeute. 

Charles begged, borrowed, and stole from Jew 
and Gentile ; but still the greedy maw of his ex- 
penses hungered for money. The little army which 
he had put in the field had no heart to fight in a 
cause which every one decried. In the hope that 
his presence would inspire enthusiasm, the king 
went to head the troops ; and in the spirit of feudal- 
ism, he summoned his nobility to a rendezvous at 
York.* He thought this silly pageant would par- 
alyze the armed bands of the Scots. 

But this tournament of carpet-knights was 
disordered by intrigue, and it reeled in drunken' 
license. t The army fraternized with the foe4 
Richelieu fomented discord. § The Dutch jeered 
from the Netherlands. The Spaniard ravaged the 
narrow seas. The rebellious Scotch hung triumph- 
ant upon the border.il Beneath the thin film of the 
court stood sullen discontent, arming itself at home. 
Frightened, broken, bankrupt, in despair, Charles 
hastened back to London ; and astounded England 
heard one day that the bewildered king had been 
driven to the dernier resort of another Parliament. IT 

* Clarendon, vol. 2, p. 281 ; May, Burnet, 
f Guizot, vol. 1, p. 119 ; Kuslrworth. 

X Whitelock, Memorials, etc., p. 31. Clarendon, vol. 1, pp. 
217, 218. § Ibid. 

|| Burnet's Own Times ; Hume. 
IT May, Hist. Long Pari. Pari. Hist., vol. 2. 



THE LONG PAKLIAMENT. 



297 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 

In April, 1640, after an intermission of twelve 
years,* Parliament, assembled by the force of 
events, met once more at Westminster Hall. Its 
temper was gentle, but firm — snaviter in modo, for- 
titer in re:\ Long banishment from their seats had 
neither quenched the hopes nor quelled the spirits 
of the national representatives. With almost laugh- 
able pertinacity, the lower house, after transact- 
ing the necessary routine business, proceeded at 
once to reappoint the old obnoxious committees 
on religion and grievances ;% after which they in- 
vited the Lords to unite with them in a fast, " be- 
cause the best way to attain unto a happy conclu- 
sion in public affairs was to beg the Divine assist- 
ance and direction by solemn humiliation."! 

The court looked on with anxious attention; 
and Laud made a bold effort to neutralize the com- 
mittees by proposing that they be formed of -an 
equal number of clergy from the convocation, and 
Commons from the House, an innovation that found 
no favor.ll Then Charles, angry at this rebuff, and 

* The last parliament had met in 1628. See chap. 19, p. 265, 
seq. f Perry, p. 598. Guizot, vol. 1, p. 126. 

X Kuslxworth, vol. 3, p. 1133. Clarendon, vol. 1, p. 227. 
§ Ibid. 

|| Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 560. Heylin, Life of Laud, p. 422. 
13* 



298 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



impatient for subsidies, laid the Scotch war before 
the Commons, pleaded his necessities, and demand- 
ed a vote of money before listening to the debate 
on grievances,"* which revived the precise state of 
affairs during the former parliament. 

This point the wily Commons would not yield. 
Their only hold upon the king was through his 
empty exchequer ; they could not trust his oft- 
broken promises ; Ms wants supplied, they feared 
that theirs would go begging. 

So the debate on grievances commenced. One 
member presented a petition from his constituents, 
complaining of the collection of ship-money, of ille- 
gal projects and monopolies, and of the Star-cham- 
ber and High Commission courts. t Another affirm- 
ed that "the commonwealth had been miserably 
massacred, that all property and liberty was shaken, 
that the church was distracted and its professors 
persecuted.''^ A third, Sir Benjamin Rudyard, the 
most eloquent orator then in the House, and a good 
friend to the Establishment^ denounced the "many 
disorders that had been committed, by innovations 
in religion, violations of fundamental laws, and in- 
trusions upon liberty."!! 

Then Pym spoke. He denounced the illegal 
taxes, declaimed against the departures from the 
Constitution, inveighed against the encouragement 

* Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 560. 

f Kusliworth, vol. 3, p. 1129. % Ibid., p. 1130. 

§ Ibid. 

|j Clarendon, vol. 1, p. 54. Rushworth, vol. 3, p. 1144. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 



299 



of popery and those " innovations in religion which 
were calculated to translate Canterbury into Rome," 
and in an able, temperate speech, used these words : 
"Popish books published and used, the introduc- 
tion of popish ceremonies, as altars, bowing towards 
the east, pictures, crucifixes, and the like, which of 
themselves are so many dry bones, when put to- 
gether, make the man. We are not now content 
with the old ceremonies — I mean such as the con- 
stitution of the reformed church hath continued 
unto us — but we must introduce again many of 
those superstitious and infirm ceremonies which 
accompanied the most decrepid age of popery."* 

The Commons had thus far ignored the Scottish 
war ; indeed nothing but respect for the king re- 
strained them from crying " Amen " to it.f 

After no little parliamentary skirmishing, dur- 
ing which the two Houses collided, the king offered 
to give up his right to collect ship-money if the 
Commons would vote him twelve subsidies.;]: That 
amount was deemed exorbitant. " Then it is use- 
less to deliberate," said Sir Henry Vane, "since the 
king will accept no other terms." The House was 
provoked ; Charles was no less angry ; and in an 
ill-starred moment he dissolved this Parliament, as 
he had all former ones.§ 

The country heard this news with astonishment. 
The wiser friends of the court trembled. The lib- 

« Kuskworth, vol. 3, p. 1133. f Guizot, vol. 1, p. 126. 

J Buslrworth, vol. 3, p. 1134. Pari. Hist., col. 563. 
§ Pari. Hist., col. 5G3. Strafford's Letters. 



300 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS 



eral party rejoiced ; this last blunder in the game 
insured the king's checkmate. "What disturbs 
you?" queried St. John, the friend of Hampden 
and a popular leader in the House, when he met 
Clarendon a few hours after the dissolution of the 
Parliament. " That which disturbs more than one 
honest person," answered the courtier, "the impru- 
dent prorogation of the Commons, who alone can 
remedy the present disorders." " Ah, well," said 
St. John, " before things grow better they must 
grow worse ; this Parliament would never have 
applied the fitting remedy."* 

This last action of the court had outraged pub- 
lic opinion. "The people were indignant at seeing 
their rights, their creed, their persons, their pos- 
sessions, surrendered to the irresponsible will of 
the king and his council, while their ancestors had 
of old made war on and dictated laws to the sover- 
eign. No philosophical theory, no learned distinc- 
tion between royalty and democracy occupied their 
thought : the House of Commons engrossed their 
whole attention, as representing the normal forces 
of the state — the ancient coalition of the barons, as 
well as the nation at large : the Commons alone 
had of late defended the public liberties ; it alone 
was esteemed capable of redeeming them. It was 
the lower house that was meant when Parliament 
was mentioned ; and the lawfulness as well as the 
necessity of its political omnipotence became a 
maxim, and established itself in every mind."t 
* Clarendon, vol. 1, p. 240. f Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 90, 91. 



THE LONG PAELIAMENT. 301 



As regarded the church, the middle classes were 
largely Puritan ; but very many of the country gen- 
tlemen had no systematic views either as respected 
its form or government ; they had no hostility to 
episcopacy per se, but they hated the bishops as the 
peculiar aiders and upholders of tyranny.* 

And these views would find expression. Spite 
of whipping, pillory, and prison — spite of edicts, 
proclamations, and search-warrants, "seditious 
books " might be purchased at every book-stall in 
London. f The Scottish charge that the bishops 
were papists in masquerade — an idea born of 
Laud's impolitic choice of clergymen who faced 
towards the Vatican to fill the northern bishop- 
ries! — was now echoed in England. § 

Charles, under the influence of his queen, and 
impelled by his pecuniary embarrassments, had 
always adopted a conciliatory policy towards the 
Romanists. While the Puritans were gagged, 
cropped, arjd bastilled, papists were granted dispen- 
sations from the penal laws ; they were allowed to 
compound for recusancy, and their contributions 
were solicited towards the necessities of the state. || 
The court had been largely Romanized ; the wit 
and beauty of the queen made her a potent mis- 
sionary ; a papal nuncio had come into the island 
in 1637, bringing with him a vast store of trinkets 
and relics.l Walter Montagu and Toby Matthews, 

* Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 90, 91. t Perry, p. 561. 

t Burnet's Own Times, p. 12. § Ibid. 

|| Perry, p. 546. Heylin's Laud. If Heylin's Laud, p. 358. 



302 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



two Jesuit proselytes, were actively intriguing for 
their newly adopted faith ;* and in discussing the 
English prelates of that time, three only, Hall, Mor- 
ton, and Darrant, were held by the holy pontiff to 
be obstinately opposed to the church of Rome.f 

The people saw and pondered ; many sober 
Protestants feared that they might live to see the 
open establishment of the Inquisition in the isl- 
and.:!: In their eyes, Laud was the chief of this 
reaction. But the famous primate, while anxious 
to reconcile his order to Rome, and even willing to 
stretch a point " to reunite torn and divided Chris- 
tendom,"! was not willing to go further than half- 
way towards the Vatican ; if he made concessions, 
he expected them.l 

But in revolutionary crises, great masses never 
stop to philosophize ; they can only see the ten- 
dency of systems, and these they accept or reject 
as they make for or against their goal. Laud's 
theories very evidently ran counter to the current 
of the time ; and the people came to hate this 
ghostly counsellor of despotism. 

The publication, at this excited moment, of 
bishop Hall's treatise on the jus divinum of epis- 
copacy, gave added vehemence to the swelling cho- 

* Percy, p. 560. 

f Heylin's Laud, p. 414, and on ; also Perry, pp. 560, 561, 
note. 

X Neale, vol. 1, ch. 4. Reign of Charles I. Hallam's Con. 
Hist., vol. 1, p. 470. 

§ Laud's Works, vol. 6, p. 45, et seq. 
|| Perry, pp. 544-548. 



THE LONG PAELIAMENT. 303 



rus of complaint. The good bishop's book was 
altered and "stiffened" by Laud; those passages 
in which Hall — one of the brightest names in Eng- 
lish divinity, an ornament to any age, a clergyman 
whose evangelical catholicity has won him immor- 
tal fame — spoke of the pope as antichrist, or held 
too stoutly to the sanctity of the Sabbath, or ad- 
mitted that a presbytery was of use where episco- 
pacy could not be had, were either erased or eased ;* 
and these alterations made the work all the more 
unpopular in England. 

Meantime the court had resorted once more 
to the "neio counsels." Former usurpations were 
renewed. Taxation was levied.t Members of the 
Commons were imprisoned for words spoken in the 
sanctuary of Parliament. % The comedy called the 
"Scotch war" was at once the pretext and the 
sanction of this despotism. But in reality there 
was no war. The two nations refused to fight each 
other. When the armies stood face to face, they 
fraternized. Strafford's own presence in the camp 
had no effect ;§ he could neither persuade, threaten, 
nor cajole the army into belligerency. When the 
English saw the written covenant floating on the 
Scottish standard, or heard the drum-beat summon 
the troops to sermon, or at sunrise heard the " hos- 
tile " camp ring with psalms and prayers, they lost 

* Canterbury's Doom, pp. 273, 274. Perry, pp. 583, 584. 
Neale, vol. 1, p. 514. f Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 584. 

% Kushworth, pt. 2, vol. 2, p. 1196. 
§ Guizot, vol. 1, p. 133. Strafford's Letters. 



304 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



all heart. When accounts of the pious ardor and 
friendly disposition of the Scots towards them- 
selves reached their ears, they were alternately 
softened and incensed ; the soldiers, many of them 
Puritans pressed into reluctant service, cursed the 
impious war in which they were engaged; they 
were already vanquished without a battle when 
they entered the lists against their brothers and 
their God.* 

Commander of an army which would not fire a 
shot ; which massacred its officers if they were sus- 
pected of popery ;t which scattered when the foe 
appeared; which stood with serene sang froid and 
saw the Scots parade in triumph from the banks 
of the Tyne to York' — Strafford himself was con- 
quered; and when Charles spoke of an armistice, 
the chagrined minister sullenly acquiesced.;]: 

The intense aversion to the war had already 
found vent in riot. London was placarded ; Laud's 
archiepiscopal palace was sacked ; its sore back 
galled with grievances, the nation reared, and bade 
fair to throw its booted and spurred riders. The 
popular excitement was heightened by the exaction 
of an oath from the clergy never to consent to any 
alteration in the government of the Established 
church. § This raised a storm even among the con- 
forming clergy,! for "it was deemed unreasonable," 

* Heylin, Life of Laud. Guizot. 
f Rushworth, pt. 2, vol. 3, p. 1191. 

J Burnet's Own Times. § Perry, Neale, Rushwortk. 

|| Robert Sanderson wrote,, from his parsonage at Boothby Pay- 



THE LONG PAELIAMENT. 



305 



says Fuller, "to demand such an oath, because 
some of the orders specified therein, as archdeacons, 
deans, archbishops, stand established only jure J/n- 
mano sive ecclesiastico ; and no wise man ever denied 
but that by the same power they are alterable on 
just occasion."* 

This oath was framed by the convocation which 
had been in session at the time of the recently pro- 
rogued Parliament ; it concluded with an et ccetera, 
which provoked a smile of bitterness and mistrust ;t 
beneath these words were supposed to lurk the pope 
and a whole college of cardinals.^ 

This complication of disorders threw the king 
into deep melancholy. He spoke of assembling a 
grand council of the peers at York, a feudal convo- 
cation which had never met through four hundred 
years; but Charles half hoped that the peers, who 

nell, "Finding, to my great grief, that great distaste is taken gen- 
erally in the kingdom to the oath enjoined by the late canons, I 
hold it to be my bounden duty rather to hazard the reputation of 
my discretion, than not to give your grace some intimatiou there- 
of ; and I am much afraid that multitudes of churchmen, not only 
of the preciser sort, but even such as are otherwise every way reg- 
ular and conformable, will either utterly refuse to take the oath, 
or be drawn thereto by great effort with much difficulty and reluc- 
tancy. The peace of the church is apparently in danger to be 
more disquieted by this one occasion than by any thing which 
hath happened in our memories." Quoted in Periw, p. 617. 
* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 410. 

f This was the purport of the oath : "I swear never to give 
consent to any alteration in the government of this church, ruled 
as it is at present by archbishops, bishops, deacons, archdeacons, 
etc." Sparrow's Collections, pp. 359, 360. Perry thinks that et 
ccetera was no snare, but a mistake. See Perry, p. 616. 

| Perry, p. 618 ; Neale, Kushworth. 



306 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



had in the past, when Parliament was weak, par- 
taken of sovereign power, might now help him out 
of his " slough, of despond.""" 

But ere the peers could be convened, the court 
was flooded with petitions for the convocation of 
another Parliament. f The king, timid and reluc- 
tant, yet succumbed. J Accordingly, when the peers 
met, they were merely entrusted with negotiations 
for a peace with Scotland, all other business be- 
ing adjourned to the two Houses at Westminster- 
hall.§ 

On the 3d of November, 1640, the Long Parlia- 
ment — as it was called from the length of its ses- 
sion — assembled at Westminster-hall. It was des- 
tined to be the most famous and the most power- 
ful representative body which England has ever 
known. Little did its members foresee, as they 
took their seats on that chilly autumn morning, 
the prodigious revolutions in church and state 
which they were to set on foot. Chiefly country 
gentlemen, possessed of large fortune, of gravity, 
of wisdom, of profound culture-, and passionately 
patriotic,!! they were at the outset inclined to be 
satisfied with some few amendments in the national 
programme. But God led them on and on. Rev- 
olutions do not obey constables. The green withes 
of the law could not bind the Samson of 1641. 

* Clarendon, 'vol. 1, p. 253. 

f Rushworth, pt. 2, vol. 2, p. 1263. 

X Clarendon, Hume. § Ibid., Eusnworth. 

|| Clarendon, Neale, Macauley, Carlyle, Newell, Rush worth. 



THE LONG PAELIAMENT. 



307 



Circumstances, grand, resistless, forced the Com- 
mons further than they thought or knew. They 
were true to the necessities of their struggle ; and 
when the monarchy cried Yeto to their acts, they 
launched the Commonwealth from the scaffold of 
the king. 

They commenced soberly; but each word was 
emphasized by the remembrance that England 
stood behind it. Over the court fell a numb fear. 
Whitehall was shrouded in gloom. Charles never 
spoke of his haughty prerogative. 

The Commons, now as always, presented a list 
of grievances. Petitions avouched them. Farm- 
ers, tradesmen, merchants, the professions, through 
their representatives, no longer sued for redress — 
they demanded it. It was enacted that no inter- 
val of more than three years should ever elapse in 
future between parliament and parliament ; and 
this statute was made executive by the proviso 
that, if writs under the great seal were not issued 
at the stated periods, the returning officers should, 
without such writs, call together the constituent 
bodies for the choice of representatives.* The 
courts of exception — the Star-chamber, which was 
a political, the High Commission, which was an 
ecclesiastical usurpation — were abolished. t The 
Council of York, which had been armed, in defi- 
ance of law, by a pure act of prerogative, and which, 
under Strafford's presidency, had made the Great 

* Macauley, Hist, of England. Hume, 
j- Pari. Hist. Clarendon. 



308 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Charter a dead letter north of the Trent,* was 
swept away. Puritan prisons were opened. Prynne, 
Bostwick, and Barton were brought out of durance 
and exile — they had been sent to the isle of Jer- 
sey — with great triumph ; London welcomed them 
peaceably, but victoriously, with bays and rose- 
mary in its hands and hats."f The royal council 
was dissolved ; its members were impeached. Straf- 
ford was incarcerated; Laud was flung into the 
Tower:]; — companions in misfortune as they had 
been in prosperity. 

Tireless, quiet, fearfully in earnest, the Com- 
mons had adopted Wentworth's motto,§ and thor- 
ough was stamped on all their acts. 

The trial of Strafford was hastened on. De- 
serted by the king, who had promised to protect 
him,li the hapless minister pronounced his immor- 
tal oration in defence of his clearly indefensible 
conduct, and concluded by the admonitory repeti- 
tion of the Scripture words, " Put not your trust in 
princes."! 

The House then passed the Act of Attainder, and 
Stratford repaid his crimes by the forfeit of his life. 

Laud's impeachment followed ; he was less fear- 
ed, but more hated, than his twin usurper. He was 

* Clarendon. May's Long Parliament. 

+ Fuller, vol. 3, p. 412. Whitelocke's Memorials, etc., p. 36. 
X Heylin's Laud ; Clarendon, Macauley, Hume. 
§ Thorough was the expressive name which Strafford had given 
in his correspondence to his policy. Strafford's Letters. 
|| Whitelocke, p. 36. Guizot, vol. 1, pp. 142, 143. 
IT State Trials, vol. 3, col. 1383. 



THE LONG PAELIAMENT. 309 



not immediately executed, but remained in close 
confinement for several years ; nor did lie care to 
break the silence which appeared to swallow him 
up in the bowels of the gloomy Tower ; he thought 
that oblivion for him was safety, and only asked to 
be forgotten.* 

On the day of Strafford's attainder, the king 
gave his assent to a law which bound him not to 
adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve the existing Parlia- 
ment without its own consent.f By this concession 
he signed his own death-warrant. This done, the 
two Houses, after ten months of arduous toil, ad- 
journed for a short vacation. '\. 

Meantime, paralyzed at the aspect of the im- 
mense power and the resolute courage of the Com- 
mons, the court stood in gaping amazement. "The 
king concealed his uneasiness and sorrow in com- 
plete inaction ; the judges, fearful for themselves, 
did not dare to protect a delinquent ; the bishojDS, 
without attempting to prevent it, saw their innova- 
tions tumbling about their heads." The Puritan 
preachers returned, without any legal title, to the 
possession of their curacies and pulpits. The dis- 
senting sects assembled with open doors. The 
press was unshackled ; pamphlets of all kinds were 
freely circulated. Men said, " In this good time of 
Parliament, England may breathe and crown the 
happy epoch as a jubilee. "§ 

* State Trials, vol. 3, col. 1383. Heylin's Laud ; Guizot. 
f Macauley, Hist. Eng., vol. 1, p. 76. May's Long Parliament. 
Pari. Hist. % May's Long Pari. § Milton. 



310 HIS TOE Y OF THE PUBITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

SWORDS EOUGH-GEOUND. 

In 1641, after a recess of six weeks, Parliament 
resumed its session, but it did not resume its una- 
nimity. The court party had recovered from its 
lethargy. The parliamentary partisans of the gov- 
ernment, though outnumbered, were still able and 
numerous ; swept away by the excitement, they 
had at first succumbed, but no Lethe drugged their 
senses, and the intermission had allowed them to 
mature their policy, and to organize a stout fight 
for their idea. 

The Puritan leaders, the statesmen of the lower 
house, though not prepared to proclaim the sover- 
eignty of the Commons, did avow the indepen- 
dence of Parliament ; and it was already in their 
minds to bereave the crown of its fatal prerogative 
by transferring the essential elements of govern- 
ment into the hands of the national representatives. 
Hampden, Pym, Yane, Hollis, Stapleton, knew that 
such a programme was an infraction of the existing 
laws ; but they also knew that there was something 
more sacred than the jus divin um of kings, some- 
thing more priceless than the chartered parch- 
ments of the past — liberty ; and aware that the 
Constitution, broad as it then was, did not insure 



SWOEDS EOUGH-GEOUND. 311 



that, they meant to guarantee it by more immuta- 
ble enactments. They reverenced the past, but 
they reverenced the future still more. They recog- 
nized the value of law, but they knew that justice 
was still weightier. Fresh from the schools of 
Athens and Koine, they found at once the apology 
and the necessity for their unconstitutional action 
. in Cicero's glorious Latin, " Sains populi supremo- 
lex."* 

Under the apparent concord, a great schism was 
latent. Events soon developed the historic parties 
of the Roundheads and the Cavaliers. 

On the first day of the new session, diversity of 
wishes and opinions was manifested. The Scottish 
Presbyterians, spreading through the country, had 
made many proselytes among the people, and even 
inoculated Parliament itself ; so that when London 
sent up its famous prayer, known as the root-and- 
branch petition, for the entire abolition of episco- 
pacy, it found ardent friends in the House. f 

A little later, seven hundred ecclesiastics solic- 
ited the reform of the temporal authority of the 
bishops ;% and this was followed in its turn by the 
arrival of nineteen petitions from several counties, 
signed by one hundred thousand names, recom- 
mending the maintenance of the Episcopal estab- 
lishment^ 

The Commons were divided in sentiment. The 

<* The safety of the people is the highest law. 

f December 11, 1640. Eushworth, pt. 3, vol. 1, p. 93. 

i Neale, vol. 1, chs. 6, 7. Clarendon. § Ibid. 



312 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



more rigid Puritans urged the adoption of the root- 
and-branch petition, and they were supported by 
numbers of the country gentlemen, who had no 
especial dislike to the ritual, but in whose minds 
prelacy and tyranny, through the course of Laud, 
were synonymous terms.* 

The moderates, headed by Lord Falkland, whom 
Clarendon esteemed the most extraordinary man of 
that extraordinary age,t refused to adopt so radical 
a policy, but they expressed their willingness to 
lop off all abuses. :f 

The debate was violent and protracted. Even- 
tually a bill was proposed barring ecclesiastics from 
all civil functions, and excluding the bishops from 
the House of Lords. On this the Commons com- 
promised ; but ifc was beaten in the upper house. § 

The alliance between the two houses of Parlia- 
ment was not at this time overcordial. The Lords, 
representing the hereditary interests, the vested 
rights, the aristocratic caste of the island, were timid 
by instinct and conservative by nature. They 
looked with suspicion upon any change, and be- 
wailed innovation. If the Commons were the spurs 
of the revolution, the Lords were its checks. 

The two Houses at this time represented differ- 
ent tendencies, the conservative and progressive: 
distinctions which are founded in diversity of tem- 
per, habit, education, intellect, and therefore pres- 
ent in all societies, and sure to exist so long as the 

* Guizot, vol. 1, book 3. f Clarendon, Memoirs. 

X Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 794-814. § Ibid., col. 794. 



SWOEDS BOUGH- GKOUND. 313 

human mind is drawn in opposite directions by the 
force of habit and by the charm of novelty. This 
difference is not confined to politics and religion ; 
it is seen in literature, in art, in science, in sur- 
gery, in navigation, in mechanics, in agriculture, 
and even in mathematics. " Everywhere," observes 
Macauley, "there is a class of men who cling with 
fondness to whatever is ancient, and who, even 
when convinced by overpowering reasons that in- 
novation would be beneficial, consent to it with 
many misgivings and forebodings. There is always 
another class of men sanguine, bold in speculation, 
always pressing forward, quick to discern the im- 
perfections of whatever exists, and disposed to think 
lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend 
improvements. Both are necessary ; but of both 
the best specimens are found not far from the com- 
mon frontier."* 

Stuart Mill thinks that conservatism is neces- 
sarily stupid, but holds that, since two-thirds of the 
constituents of every society are also stupid, it may 
plume itself on always being sure to have the largest 
party.f 

But even the conservatism of the House of 
Lords grew radical under the pressure of events. 
Thus far the revolution had been moral. News 
came that Ireland was heaving in rebellion. Half 
civilized, crowded down into vassalage by their 
conquerors, bigoted Boinanists, the aboriginal 

* Macauley, Hist. Eng., vol. 1, pp. 76, 77. 

f Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1866. 

Puritans. 14 



314 UISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



tribes had risen against the colonists, and a war 
which was a massacre desolated the green island. 
National and theological hatred gave the outbreak 
increased ferocity, and the butchery of Protes- 
tants rivalled in horror the Paris St. Bartholo- 
.mew.* 

"A horrible suspicion, unjust indeed, but not 
altogether unnatural, seized the Parliament. The 
queen was an avowed Romanist ; the king was not 
regarded by the Puritans, whom he had mercilessly 
persecuted, as a sincere Protestant ; and so notori- 
ous was his duplicity, that there was no treachery 
of which he was not believed capable. It was soon 
whispered that this awful holocaust of Pome in 
Erin was part of a vast work of darkness which 
had been planned at Whitehall." t 

Then passion broke loose ; a remonstrance, enu- 
merating the faults of the king's administration 
from the date of his accession, and covering both 
civil and religious grievances, was introduced. This 
was addressed, not to the king, but to the people, 
and it was couched in haughty language. After a 
rancorous debate, it was adopted by a small ma- 
jority.} 

Meantime riot raged in the streets. The pulpit 
bewailed the dangers which menaced religion from 
the desperate attempts of papists and malignants ; 
frantic multitudes crowded to Westminster, and in- 



e Hume, vol. 2, pp. 2G8-273. 

f Macauley, History of England, vol. 1, p. 82. 

X Pari. History. May's Long Parliament. 



SWOBDS KOUGH-GKOUND. 315 



suited the prelates and the Cavaliers on the route 
to and from Parliament.* 

The Romans had a custom that, once a year, a 
solemn festival should be held, in which their slaves 
had full liberty to ease their minds by saying of 
their masters what they pleased. In England the 
saturnalia seemed now resurrected. But the prel- 
ates, less complacent than the ancients, were dis- 
pleased with the "plain speech" of the plebeians; 
so one day they sent up to the Lords a protestation, 
in which they stated that, though they had an un- 
doubted right to sit in the upper house, they were 
restrained therefrom by the affronts of the unruly 
multitude. Since therefore they could not safely 
take their seats, they protested against all legisla- 
tion during their absence. t 

The protestation was signed by twelve bishops, 
and heartily approved by the king4 

This ill-timed and silly act compromised both 
king and prelates. "As soon as it was presented 
to the Lords," says Hume, " that House desired a 
conference with the Commons, whom they informed 
of this ill-starred paper. The opportunity was 
seized with joy and triumph. An impeachment for 
high-treason was immediately issued against the 
prelates, as endeavoring to subvert the fundamen- 
tal laws by invalidating the authority of legislation. 
They were, on the first demand, sequestrated from 
Parliament, and committed to custody. No man 

* Hume, vol. 2, pp. 278, 279 

f Ibid. ; Fuller, Lathbury. % Hume, Macauley. 



316 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



in either house ventured to speak a word in their 
vindication, so much was every one displeased at 
the egregious imprudence of which they had been 
guilty. One person alone said that he did not 
believe them guilty of high-treason, but that they 
were stark mad, and he therefore desired that they 
might be sent to Bedlam."* 

But the king's treachery soon made this " Ossa 
like a wart." Bereaved of Strafford and deprived 
of Laud, Charles had expressed his wish to govern 
in harmony with the Commons, and in order to that, 
had proposed to call into his cabinet constitutional 
loyalists like Falkland, Hyde, and Colepepper, all of 
whom were distinguished by the share which they had 
taken in the reformation of abuses, yet whose attach- 
ment to the existing forms was decided and sincere.f 

Had this been done, the revolution might even 
then have been averted. A strong party backed 
the constitutionalists ; custom was on their side ; 
and had the king been honest, the headsman's axe 
would have been left to rust. But he hated his new 
advisers ; " they were by no means men after his 
own heart. They were lovers of liberty, and they 
were attached to the existing regime only because 
they thought that a few reforms would insure liber- 
ty. They had joined in condemning his tyranny, in 
abridging his power, and in punishing his instru- 
ments. They were even indeed prepared to defend 
by strictly legal means his strictly legal preroga- 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 277. 

f Guizot, vol. 1, p. 157. Clarendon, vol. 2, p. 73. 



SWOEDS KOUGH-GKO UN D . 317 



tives ; but they would have recoiled with horror 
from the thought of renewing Laud's usurpations 
or reviving Strafford's projects of "thorough" They 
were therefore, in the king's estimation, traitors 
who differed only in the degree of their seditious 
malignity from Pym and Hampden."* 

His project then of calling the constitutionalist 
chiefs into his council was an empty ruse, a shallow 
trick to gain time. One day, without prior consul- 
tation with his friends, he sent the attorney-general 
to impeach Hampden, Pym, Hollis, and other Puri- 
tan leaders of the Commons, at the bar of the 
House of Lords ; and his insanity carried him so 
far that he even invaded the sanctuary of "Westmin- 
ster Hall by marching at the head of his guard to 
seize them in person. t 

Abashed and dismayed, the Cavaliers stood si- 
lent. The opposition leaders escaped arrest,! but 
this attempt taught them that their necks were 
now staked on success. London was stirred to 
portentous rage.§ England at large began to arm. 
The Puritan clergy inspired their disciples to a 
manful defence of the " good old cause." The col- 
ors of the Parliament were on every hat.|| White- 
hall itself was surrounded by a cordon of offended 
yeomen.1T And the king, fearing his own arrest, 
quitted his capital, and skulked like a malefactor 
to the provincial town of York.** 

* Macauley, vol. 1, p. 84. 

f May's Long Pari. ; Clarendon, Burnet. % Ibid. 

§ Guizot, Clarendon. || Ibid. IT Ibid. 

** Harris, Life of Charles I. ; Clarendon, Caiiyle. 



318 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



What followed falls properly into the depart- 
ment of civil history ; but in those times political 
and religious affairs were so closely married that it 
is impossible to divorce them. If we would get a 
clear insight into English Protestantism in the sev- 
enteenth century, we must also understand the pol- 
itics of the age. And indeed it has been well said, 
that in the great rebellion it was not so much the 
civil as the religious grievances of England that 
gathered adherents to the Parliament. It was 
Pueitanism watching with jealousy the tendencies 
towards the hated system of Home, and clinging to 
the Bible and to purity of faith and form, which 
vivified and dignified the struggle. 

At length, in 1642, after tedious negotiations, 
succeeded by crimination and recrimination, the 
sword was unsheathed, and the disputed questions 
were left to the decision of that stern arbitrator, 
war. 

Englishmen were summoned to choose sides in 
this death- dance. To republican eyes the Parlia- 
ment was so self-evidently right in every essential 
respect, that men often find it hard to believe that 
honest, even if mistaken Cavaliers could have 
fought under the banners of the king. But the 
England of 1642 was not the United States of 1866. 
The constitutionalists, many of whom were pos- 
sessed of marked virtues and abilities, forced to 
choose between two dangers, and honestly wedded 
to the monarchy, esteemed it their duty rather to 
rally to the aid of a prince whose past conduct 



SWOKDS ROUGH- GKOUND. 



319 



they condemned, and whose word inspired tliem 
with little confidence, than to suffer the subversion 
of the royal polity. The Romanists were royalists 
because the queen was of their faith, and also be- 
cause they knew that Charles granted them a much 
more liberal toleration than the Puritans would 
concede. " On the same side were the great body 
of the clergy, both the universities, and all those 
laymen who were strongly attached to episcopal 
government and to the English ritual. These re- 
spectable classes found themselves in the company 
of some allies much less decorous than themselves. 
Puritan austerity drove to the king's faction all 
who made pleasure their business, who affected 
gallantry, splendor of dress, or taste in the higher 
arts. With these went all who lived by amusing 
the leisure of others, from the painter and the 
comic poet down to the rope-dancer and the Merry 
Andrew ; for these artists knew that they might 
thrive under a superb and luxurious despotism, 
but must starve under the rigid rule of the pre- 
cisians."* 

The whole royalist party is not chargeable with 
" the profligacy and baseness of the horse-boys, the 
gamblers, and the bravos, whom the hope of plun- 
der attracted from all the dens of "Whitefriars to 
the standard of the king ; nor were the Cavaliers 
the instruments which despots in other countries 
have employed, with the mutes who throng their 
ante-chambers, and the janizaries who mount guard 
8 Macauley, Hist, of Eng., vol. 1, p. 79. 



320 H1STOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



at tlieir gates. They were not mere machines for 
destruction, dressed up in uniforms, caned into 
skill, intoxicated into valor, defending without love, 
destroying without hatred. There was a freedom 
in their subserviency, a nobleness in their very 
degradation. They were indeed misled, but often 
by no base or selfish motive. Compassion, mis- 
conceptions of romantic honor, the prejudices of 
childhood, and the venerable names of history, 
threw over them a spell potent as that of Duessa ; 
and like the Reel-cross knight, they thought that 
they were doing battle for some injured beauty, 
while they defended a false and loathsome sorceress. 
In truth they scarcely entered into the merits of the 
political question; they had not themselves been 
pinched or harried, and they knew nothing and 
cared less for those who had. It was not for a 
treacherous king or an intolerant church that they 
fought, but for the old banner which had waved in 
so many battles over the heads of their fathers, and 
for the altars at which they had received the hands 
of their brides. Though nothing could be more 
erroneous than their political opinions, they pos- 
sessed, in a fairer degree than their adversaries, 
those qualities which are the grace of private life ; 
with many of the vices of the round-table, they had 
also many of its virtues — courtesy, generosity, ten- 
derness, and respect for woman.""" 

The parliamentary muster was in strong con- 
trast with the king's glittering array. Under the 
© Macauley, Essay on Milton. 



SWOKDS KOUGH- G BOUND. 321 

banner of the Commons stood incarnated Puritan- 
ism, reinforced by the small freeholders, the mer- 
chants, the shop-keepers, the municipal corpora- 
tions ; by those members of the Established church 
who still adhered to the Cavinistic doctrines which 
forty years before had been generally held by the 
prelates and the clergy, but who had no affection 
for the Genevan discipline ; and by a formidable 
minority of the aristocracy. 

But the Puritans were at once the main stay 
and the inspiration of the popular cause ; and they 
were attracted towards the Parliament by its pre- 
ponderating religious earnestness. Officered by 
Pym, the Papinian of England ; by Hampden, a 
statesman and a soldier sans pear et sans reprocJie ; 
by Harry Yane — 

" Yane, young in years, but in sage counsel old;" 

by Fairfax, 

' ' Whose name in arms through Europe rings, 
Filling each mouth with envy or with praise, 
And all her jealous monarchs with amaze, 
And rumors loud that daunt remotest kings ;" 

by Cromwell, the 

' ' Chief of men, who through a cloud 
Not of war only, but distractions rude, 
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude;" 

and by Milton, the mouth-piece and the trenchant 
pen of "the good old cause" — officered by such 
chiefs, militant Puritanism, linking hands with civil 
liberty, could not but receive the benediction of the 
God of battle. 

14* 



322 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

THE GOOD FIGHT FOE TOLERATION. 

The early months of 1642 were spent by both 
king and Parliament in active preparation for their 
death-grip. The two athletes lavished their cun- 
ning upon their training before venturing to face 
each other in the arena. 

Charles, traversing the northern and western 
counties, recruited an army by plausible harangues, 
by spendthrift promises, by the woful aspect of 
his ruffled regality ; and the enthusiastic Cavaliers, 
pawning their jewels, mortgaging their estates, 
melting their silver chargers and christening-bowls, 
hastened to enlist.* 

Nor was the Parliament less active :* severe and 
methodical taxation coined gold ; a militia force was 
organized ; the train-bands of the cities were armed, 
and the provident statesmen of the Commons col- 
lected all the elements of their scattered strength. t 
The importance of effecting an alliance with Scot- 
land was soon felt and seen. The northern king- 
dom was, in some sense, the in augur ator of the strife, 
since the helium Episcopate had struck the tocsin of 
armed resistance. Scotland, from the Orkneys to 
the Tweed, was obstinately and intolerantly tied in 

* Macauley, Hist. Eng., vol. 1, p. 88. Neale, vol. 2, p. 19. 
f Hume, May's Long Pari., etc. 



FIGHT FOE TOLERATION. 323 



the Covenant. The Presbyterian clergy ruled there 
as absolutely as the bishops did in England under 
Laud.* Not only so, but the Presbyterians had 
gained firm foothold in the Parliament itself; and 
now, when a league was proposed, it was urged as 
a sine qua non, that episcopacy should be formally 
abolished.f "Marvellous art and industry," re- 
marks Clarendon, " were employed in engineering 
this bill. A majority of the Commons were really 
against it, and it was hardly submitted to by the 
House of Peers ; yet it passed without one negative 
vote ; and bonfires and bell-peals ratified the act 
in London. "J "It may seem strange," comments 
Neale, " that Parliament should abolish the existing 
Establishment before they had agreed upon another; 
but the Scots would not declare for them till they 
had done it. Had the two houses been inclined 
to Presbytery, as some have maintained, it had 
been easy to have adopted the Scots' model at once ; 
but as the bill for extirpating episcopacy was not to 
take place till above a year forward, it was appar- 
ent that they were willing it should not take place 
at all, if in that time they could come to an accom- 
modation with the king ; and if the breach should 
then remain, they proposed to consult with an as- 
sembly of divines what form to erect in its stead. 
Thus the old ritual lay prostrate for eighteen years, 

* Chambers, in his history of the rebellions in Scotland, tells 
some strange stories of the despotic authority of the Presbyterian 
clergy. See vol. 1, pp. 43-46, Introduction. 

t Pari. Hist. May's Long Pari. 

\ Clarendon, vol. 1, p. 279. 



324 HISTOBY OF THE PURITANS. 

although never legally abolished for want of the 
royal assent ; and therefore at the Restoration it 
took place again, without any new law to restore it : 
the Presbyterians, who were then in the saddle, not 
understanding this, did not provide against it, as 
they might have done."* 

An anecdote illustrates the lack of zeal which 
characterized the loyalists in the House of Com- 
mons. On this very occasion, when the life or death 
of the church of England was in earnest debate, the 
Cavaliers, weary and hungry, quitted Westminster 
Hall to carouse in an adjoining coffee-house. Dur- 
ing their absence, the bill was passed, which caused 
Lord Falkland to remark, that " the enemies of the 
church hated it worse than the devil, while its very 
best friends did not like it so well as their dinner, "t 

Meanwhile war had actually commenced. Edge- 
hill was soaked in fraternal gore. Twelve months 
of checkered conflict passed, and the king, triumph- 
ant in the north and west, was the decided gainer. 
Already England had lost the flower of her sons. 
The "brave Lord Brooke," one of the brightest 
ornaments of the Puritan party, the Sydney of the 
war, was slain.:j: Falkland, the Bayard of the roy- 
alist party, had fought his last battle.§ Hampden 
had fallen, as became him, vainly endeavoring, by 
his heroic example, to inspire his followers with 
courage to face the fiery cavalry of Rupert. || 



* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 18, 19. 
t March 2, 1643. 
|| June 24, 1643. 



t Clarendon. 
§ September 20, 1643. 



FIGHT FOR TOLERATION. 325 



"Nothing is here for tears ; nothing to wail 
Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt, 
Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair." 

Agitated by these losses and reverses, Parlia- 
ment sent a commission, headed by Vane, whose 
eloquence, address, capacity, and tolerant breadth 
of statesmanship made him the fitting successor of 
Hampden, to Edinburgh, to solicit a closer union. 
These negotiations were successful. The " Solemn 
League and Covenant" was signed by the Scottish 
convention of states and by the general assembly, 
and the next morning the commissioners departed 
for London, to obtain the assent of England to the 
nascent confederacy.* 

This famous paper consisted of six articles, 
pledging those who took it to mutual brotherhood ; 
to the preservation of Presbyterianism in Scotland ; 
to the extirpation of popery, prelacy, " and whatso- 
ever was contrary to sound doctrine and the power 
of godliness ; and to the maintenance of the liber- 
ties of both kingdoms."! 

There was much debate over the form of the 
Covenant, even before it was signed in Scotland. 
Yane desired a civil league ; the Scotch pressed for 
a religious covenant. Yane, a devotee of toleration, 
knew that the Covenanters claimed that divine right 
on which the bishops grounded Episcopacy as the 
prerogative of Presbyterianism, and he dreaded lest 

* Burnet, Mem. of the HamiTtons. Baillie, Letters, vol. 1, p. 381. 
f Chambers, vol. 1, pp. 231-253. Burnet, Mem. of the Hamil- 
ton®. 



326 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



the synod should replace the prelates, and in their 
turn press conformity, as happened in the sequel. 

But the Scotch were stubborn ; home necessi- 
ties pressed ; so the utmost concession that Vane's 
skilful diplomacy could wring was, that the paper 
should be called a league, to meet the views of those 
who did not approve of its religious aspect, and a 
covenant for the satisfaction of such as chiefly val- 
ued its ecclesiastical character.* 

But during the pendency of this debate, that 
celebrated convocation was called which history 
recognizes as The Westminster Assembly of Divines. 

Against the formal protest of the king,t Parlia- 
ment ordained, on its own authority, a convention 
of "learned and godly divines and others, to be con- 
sulted with by the Parliament, for settling the gov- 
ernment and liturgy of the church of England.":}; 

Ten lords, twenty commoners, and one hundred 
and twenty-one clergymen were summoned by name 
to attend, and equal liberty in voting and debating 
was conceded.§ The two houses appointed them- 
selves the court of dernier ressort.W 

On the 1st of July, 1643, sixty -nine divines, ac- 
companied by the parliamentary delegation, assem- 
bled in that magnificent chapel which Henry VII. 
had reared at Westminster, and one of the finest 
specimens of mediaeval church architecture in Eng- 

° Hume, vol. 2, p. 305 ; Neale, vol. 2, p. 67 ; Chambers, ut 
antea. f Clarendon, Burnet. 

% Pari. Hist,, vol. 3, col. 173* Rushworth, part 3, vol. 3, p. 
475. § Ibid. 

|| Pari. Hist., vol. 3, col. 173. 



FIGHT FOE TOLERATION. 



327 



land. But to the grave worthies in black — for in 
imitation of the foreign Protestants, the clergy had 
discarded their canonical habits* — this "haunt of 
prelacy" was veiled with gloomy associations. As 
they glanced around, they thought of Laud, of the 
Star-chamber, of the High Commission, of cropped 
ears, slit noses, and confiscated goods. The vaulted 
roof, clinging from the clustered pillars in the walls 
like branches of lofty trees interlaced, forming a 
rich canopy of leaves, had no charms for them. If - 
the building was "a poem in stone," it related a sad 
story ; " and the fretwork, elaborately spread over 
the cold walls and roof, became no unapt symbol 
of that ingeniously wrought system of perverted 
religion elaborated in Rome, which overreached so- 
ciety through the middle ages, and which has been 
fitly termed ' a petrifaction of Christianity.' Now, 
when pacing those dim aisles, perhaps they felt a 
struggle in their breasts between emotions of taste 
and the sentiments of faith ; and the charms of artis- 
tic beauty were weakened, if not dispelled, by the 
remembrance of the ecclesiastical despotism which, 
by means like these, among others, for so many cen- 
turies held captive the minds of their forefathers."t 
Still they entered this 

' ' Studious cloister pale, " 

and considered mooted and knotty points of theol- 
ogy under 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. G3. 

f Stoughton, Spiritual Heroes, pp. 144, 145. 



328 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



» — — ■ "the high embowered roof, 

With antique pillars massy proof, 
And storied windows, richly dight, 
Casting a dim, religious light." 

Hallam describes the Westminster Assembly as 
"equal in learning, good sense, and other merits, 
to any lower house of convocation that ever made 
a figure in England."* And Baxter says, "The 
divines there assembled were men eminent in learn- 
ing, godliness, ministerial abilities, and fidelity ; and 
being not worthy to be one of them myself, I may 
the more freely speak the truth, even in the face of 
malice and envy, that so far as I am able to judge, 
by the information of all history of that kind, the 
Christian world since the clays of the apostles had 
never a synod of more excellent divines than this 
and the Synod of Dort."t 

Milton's opinion was not so favorable. He 
thought the convocation the hand on the dial, mov- 
ing and pointing as directed by the clock of Pres- 
byterianism ; and he could never forgive it the at- 
tempt to enact that creed into the national religion 
instead of decreeing toleration.^ 

When the doctrinal debates began, three parties 
were developed. The majority were Presbyterians, 
men who believed that elders, clerical and lay, were 
the only divinely appointed rulers of the church ; 
and that synods, general and provincial, were the 
only ecclesiastical courts of divine appointment^ 

* Hallam, Cons. Hist., vol. 1, p. 609. 

f Baxter's Life and Times, p. 193. % Milton, Prose Works. 
§ Chambers, Neale, Newell, Clarendon, Baxter. 



FIGHT FOE TOLERATION. 329 



Next in number and authority were the Eras- 
tians* who held that the precise form of church 
government was not appointed in Scripture, but 
was left entirely to the magistracy, with whom alone 
resided the power to inflict punishment for offen- 
ces ;f and such eminent men as Selclen, Whitelocke, 
and Oliver St. John were the chiefs of this party. J 

Last came the Independents, a small party, just 
rising into reputation, the fathers of modern Con- 
gregationalism, the brothers of the exiled Pilgrims 
of Plymouth rock. They conceived that every 
Christian congregation had, under Christ, supreme 
jurisdiction in things spiritual over its own pastor 
and its own members ; they rejected the interposi- 
tion of the magistrate in religious affairs ; they held 
that the individual churches were destitute of tem- 
poral sanction ; in their eyes, appeals to the provin- 
cial and national synods were scarcely less unscrip- 
tural than appeals to the court of Arches or to the 
Vatican : holding to the democracy of Christianity, 
they esteemed popery, prelacy, and Presbyterianism 
to be merely three forms of one great apostasy.§ 

In politics they were, to use the phrase of their 
time, root-and-branch men ; or, to use the kindred 
phrase of our age, radicals. Not content with lim- 
iting the power of the monarch, they were desirous 
to erect a commonwealth on the ruins of the old 
English polity.! 

* Chap. 12, p. 170, note. 

f Hume, Newell, etc. J Newell, p. 269. 

§ Macauley, Hist. Eng., vol. I, p. 90; Hurne, vol. 2, pp. 314, 
315. || Macauley, p. 91. 



330 



HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Among the Independents were found the only 
friends which toleration then could count. All of 
that party were not true to their principles or log- 
ical in their applications, as events amply demon- 
strated when they controlled the commonwealth ; 
but their philosophers, their orators, their states- 
men were enamoured of the completest intellectual 
liberty. 'T is the rare credit of the party. Yane 
was the parliamentary advocate of this grand fun-" 
damental truth, the hardest to learn, and the most 
necessary. Cromwell was its champion in the field ; 
Milton was its knight-errant in the domain of let- 
ters. 

In September, 1643, the commissioners returned 
from Scotland with the Solemn League and Covenant. 
The Parliament immediately referred it to the West- 
minster divines, * who were then discussing the doc- 
trinal Articles of the church of England. By this 
time the few Episcopal divines who had appeared 
had seceded, leaving to their opponents a clear 
field. t All other questions were at once adjourned, 
and the Assembly opened a debate upon the Arti- 
cles of Confederation. The Independents disliked 
several of the clauses of the Covenant ; but the im- 
perious necessities of the state overbore all opposi- 
tion, and the document was shortly voted by the 
Assembly and b} T both houses of Parliament, arti- 
cle by article, " each person standing uncovered, 
with right hand uplifted. A prayer concluded the 

° Baillie's Letters ; Burnet, Pari. Hist, 
t Burnet, Neale, Clarendon. 



FIGHT FOR TOLERATION. 



331 



solemnity ; after which the Commons went up into 
the chancel, and subscribed their names in one roll 
of parchment, whither they were followed by the 
Assembly, who subscribed theirs in another, in both 
which the Covenant was fairly transcribed."* 

An oath to support the union was enforced in 
Scotland by the severest penalties ;f and in Eng- 
land it was required of all over eighteen years of 
age, the punishment for non-compliance being cita- 
tion before the House of Commons and disfran- 
chisement.:): 

This done, the Assembly dispatched letters to 
the Protestant churches in France, in Switzerland, 
and in the Netherlands, reciting their recent action, 
and requesting the sympathy of their coreligionists. § 
And this was followed by a counter- appeal to foreign 
Protestantism by the king.H 

From this time the dissolution of the Establish- 
ment may be dated ; or if not the dissolution, then 
the trance ; for it slept without awaking through 
eighteen years. There were no ecclesiastical courts, 
no visitations, no habits, no ceremonies, not even 
the Prayer-book itself. The Assembly of divines, 
sitting, as had the old convocations, during the en- 
tire session of Parliament, passed all church busi- 
ness through their hands ; the parishes elected their 
ministers, the Assembly examined and approved 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 68. 

f Chambers, vol. 1, chap. 12. Baillie's Letters, 
t Clarendon, Hume, Neale, Burnet. 

§ Neale, vol. 2, pp. 72, 73. || Ibid. 



332 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



them, and Parliament confirmed them in their ben- 
efices. It was to Westminster that petitioners for 
sequestered livings also resorted.* 

But though the Westminster Assembly contin- 
ued its sessions until the establishment of the Com- 
monwealth, in its last years it dwindled away in 
point of numbers, sank in public estimation, and 
declined in reputation and influence.t The open- 
ing months of its existence were its busiest. In 
1646 the Confession of Faith was completed; the 
doctrinal part of which the Parliament adopted, re- 
jecting the discipline. At that time also the Larger 
Catechism, for exposition in the pulpit, and the 
Shorter Catechism, for the instruction of children, 
were prepared.;!: 

But the famous debate on toleration took place 
within thirty days after the subscription of the Cov- 
enant. 

The Presbyterians, usurping the discarded pre- 
rogatives of the Episcopal bench, shackled the 
press, interfered with the civil rights of the people, 
and pressed conformity with their creed ;§ so that 
England had first a single pope, at Rome, then a 
bench of popes, the bishops, and finally an Assembly 
of popes, at Westminster. 

Besides, the absurdity was seen of men who had 
just been baiting down the prelates as persecutors, 
now, in their own prosperity, proving the hollow- 



* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 74, 75. f Stougliton, p. 183. 

\ Whitelocke, Memorials, etc. 

§ Hume, Clarendon, Neale, Guizot, etc. 



FIGHT FOE TOLEEATION. 333 



ness of their former protests by enacting the same 
role. Yane protested, Cromwell stormed, Milton 
argued and satirized by turns,* addressing to the 
Parliament the noblest plea for an unshackled press 
ever penned or uttered, and addressing to the peo- 
ple his caustic comment, 

" New presbyter is but old priest writ large." 

There were but five Independents in the Assem- 
bly ;f but these were men of rare ability and active 
eloquence ; so that, reinforced by the scholarship, 
the genius, and the zeal of their party outside of 
Westminster, they contrived to make themselves 
felt and heard. 

" The divines had at first met in Westminster 
chapel. The coolness of that spacious edifice was 
pleasant in the summer months ; but when the win- 
ter cold came on, the Assembly adjourned to the 
Jerusalem chamber, whose plain architecture was 
more in harmony with the Puritans than the florid 
gothic of the chapel they had left. This, according 
to the old chronicler Fabian, supported by Shak- 
speare, was the death-scene of Henry IV. 

" Romance and poetry have thus thrown their 
rainbow hues over the room ; but far nobler associ- 
ations are linked with it when it is remembered as 
the spot where the advocates of religious liberty 
stood and fought one of their earliest battles. The 

* Prose Works. See also Milton's Life, Am. Tract Soc., 1866. 

f Their names were, Nye, Burroughs, Bridge, Greenhill, and 
Carter. Newell, p. 269. Nye and Burroughs were the Luther 
and the Melancthon of the little band. 



334 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



dying" Harry, prevented from accomplishing his 
wished-for crusade to Palestine, is a picture of no 
mean interest ; but it pales before the scene of those 
five brave ones who contended for the claims of God 
and the rights of man, and carried on a moral cru- 
sade against those who had usurped the holy land 
of conscience."* 

The two parties joined battle on the jus divinum 
of Presbyterianism. "When the Assembly decided 
yes, the Independents protested. t But the debate 
grew still sharper when the Assembly proposed to 
enforce by civil penalties their rigid code. "No," 
said the Independents, " by God's command the 
magistrate is discharged to put the least discour- 
tesy on any man, Turk, Jew, Papist, Socinian, or 
whatever, for his religion.";]: 

This was something " new under the sun." Men 
had pleaded and died for their own faith; but these 
heroes leaped beyond them. Braver than Cran- 
mer, broader than Cart-wright, they were not satis- 
fied with freedom for themselves; they demanded 
it for the human race. 

Nor was this the offspring of indifference. They 
were not doubting Thomases or careless Gallios. 
They hated error, they abhorred sin ; but they 
made a distinction which their brother Puritans 
did not. " Let even the erring ones in these happy 
days remain untouched by law, unharmed by civil 



* Stoughton. t Ibid-, p- 175", et seq. 

% Quoted from a pamphlet by John Goodwin, a famous Inde- 
pendent, to whom Baillie refers in his Letters. 



FIGHT FOE TOLEKATION. 



335 



penalties," they pleaded. " What," asked the Pres- 
byterians, "will you then tolerate error, adopt 
schism, and banquet Romanism?" "No, broth- 
ers," was the reply, "we are foes to error as much 
as you; most intolerant are we of all that invades 
Christ's empire to disturb its peace ; but in con- 
quering error, we must not employ any weapons 
which God has forbidden ; and ' the weapons of our 
warfare are not carnal.' "* 

Though outvoted and shouted down in the As- 
sembly, the champions of toleration became popu- 
lar in the street and in the Commons. The decision 
of the divines on the jus divinum of Presby terianism 
was modified by Parliament, which also refused 
to alienate the poiver of the keys in ecclesiastical 
offences, t Thus barred by the authoritative veto 
of " the powers that be" from enforcing their prin- 
ciples by the sword, the Presbyterians never suc- 
ceeded in nationalizing their ecclesiasticism. Nor 
did they forgive the party which had balked them 
of success, and which ere long supplanted them in 
power 4 



* This whole debate is admirably summarized by Stoughton, 
pp. 160-183. f Hallam, Neale, Burnet, Hume, 

i Newell, p. 270 ; Whitelocke, Memorials, etc ; Neale, vol. 2. 



336 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 

THOROUGH. 

Fbom the year 1644 forward, to the establish- 
ment of the Commonwealth, events jostled and 
elbowed each other. Change succeeded change, 
growth succeeded growth. In civil wars, that party 
which is buoyed up by enthusiasm and has a pur- 
pose, is sure to control the present and to mould 
the future. The men who sit, like the figure on our 
coin, with their heads turned back, are pressed by 
revolutionary gravitation into the grave of the past. 
Live growths rive dead matter. 

The English rebellion of 1641 illustrates this. 
Every day the Thorough party gained in influence 
and prestige. There were many changes in the 
Parliament. Old leaders were dead, or shelved. 
Bedford was an apostate ; Pym had been borne 
with princely honors to a grave among the Plan- 
tagenets. Yane, ardent, resolute, uncompromising, 
began to shape the time in a republican model.* 

So in the army. Essex and his lieutenants, 
mere holiday warriors, dilettante soldiers, were 
pushed from their camp-stools ; Cromwell and Ire- 
ton marshalled Britain to a higher struggle ; and 
as the nation was more in earnest, so its leaders 

* Macanley, Hist, of England, vol. 1, p. 91. 



THOKOUGH. 



337 



at the council-board and in the field were seen 
to be. 

Cromwell's rise was as remarkable as it was 
rapid. " Bred to peaceful occupations, he had, at 
more than forty years of age, accepted a colonel's 
commission in the parliamentary army. No sooner 
had he become a soldier, than he discovered, with 
the keen eye of genius, what Essex and men like 
Essex, with all their experience, were unable to 
perceive. He saw precisely where the strength of 
the royalists lay, and by what means alone that 
strength could be overpowered. He saw that it 
was necessary to reconstruct the army of the Par- 
liament. At the outset their ranks had been filled 
with hirelings whom want and idleness had induced 
to enlist — the usual element of the rank and file of 
armies. Hampden's regiment had been considered 
one of the best, yet he described it as a mere rab- 
ble of tapsters and serving-men out of place. 

" The Cavaliers were gentlemen, high-spirited, 
ardent, accustomed to the use of arms, to bold 
riding, and to perilous S]Dort — the image of war. 
Mounted on their favorite horses, and commanding 
little bands composed of their younger brothers, 
their game-keepers, their huntsmen, they were per- 
fectly qualified for guerilla warfare. The steadi- 
ness, the prompt obedience, the mechanical precis- 
ion of movement, which are characteristic of the 
regular soldier, these gallant volunteers never at- 
tained. But they were at first opposed to enemies 
as undisciplined as themselves, and far less active, 

Puritans. 1 5 



338 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



athletic, and daring. For a time therefore the 
Cavaliers were successful in almost every en- 
counter. 

" Cromwell changed all this. He saw that an 
army might be built out of materials less showy 
indeed, but more solid than those of which the 
dashing squadrons of the king were composed. It 
was necessary to look for recruits who were not 
mere mercenaries, for recruits of decent station and 
grave character, fearing God and zealous for lib- 
erty. With such men he filled his own regiment ; 
and while he subjected them to a discipline more 
rigid than had ever before been known in England, 
he administered to their intellectual and moral na- 
ture stimulants of fearful potency."* 

Time passed ; the Parliament gradually entrust- 
ed more and more power to their great captain. 
The army was remodelled and made over into the 
image of the " Ironsides " squadron. Fairfax, a 
brave soldier, became the nominal commander-in- 
chief of the popular forces; but Cromwell's were 
the keener eye, the cooler brain, and stouter arm 
which virtually presided at the helm. 

Then the Parliament swept on from success to 
success. The reconstructed army moved to victory 
with the precision of machines, while burning with 
the wild fanaticism of crusaders. Every soldier 
had a double life. In camp he was a field-preacher 
perhaps, or a politician. If the first, he would lead 
the devotions of the men, and admonish a back- 

* Macauley, ut antoa. 



THOEOUGH. 



339 



sliding major or colonel. If the second, lie would 
head a club, elect delegates, and pass resolutions. 
But in the heat of battle he became a simple sol- 
dier, obedient, inflexible, rigid. 

It was this double life, this rare union of polit- 
ical and religious enthusiasm, with perfect organi- 
zation and subordination, which gave Cromwell's 
army its irresistibility. It was at once a church 
and a camp, an incarnate sermon and a warlike 
thunderbolt. 

And it never met an enemy which could with- 
stand its onset. "In England, Scotland, Ireland, 
Flanders, the Puritan warriors, often surrounded 
by 'difficulties, sometimes contending against three- 
fold odds, not only never failed to conquer, but 
never failed to destroy whatever force opposed 
them. They at length came to regard the day of 
battle as a day of certain triumph, and marched 
against the most renowned battalions of Europe 
with disdainful confidence. Turenne was startled 
by the shout of stern exultation with which his 
English allies advanced to the combat, and ex- 
pressed the delight of a true soldier when he 
learned that it was ever the custom of Cromwell's 
pikemen to rejoice greatly when they beheld the 
enemy ; and the banished Cavaliers felt an emotion 
of national pride when they saw a brigade of their 
Puritan countrymen, outnumbered by foes and 
abandoned by allies, drive before it in headlong 
rout the finest infantry of Spain, and force a pas- 
sage into a counterscarp which had just been pro- 



340 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



nounced impregnable by the ablest marshals of 
France."* 

Baxter confirms this account, and, since he was 
with the army, his testimony is conclusive: "Many, 
yea, the generality of those peojDle throughout 
England who went by the name of Puritans, who 
followed sermons, prayed in their families, read 
books of devotion, and were strict observers of the 
Sabbath, being avowed enemies to swearing, drunk- 
enness, and all profaneness, adhered to the Parlia- 
ment, and filled up their armies afterwards, because 
they heard the king's soldiers with horrid oaths 
abuse the name of God, and saw them living in 
debauchery, while the Parliament soldiers flocked 
to sermons, talked of religion, prayed and sung 
psalms together on guards. And all sober men of 
my acquaintance who opposed the Parliament, 
used to say, c The king has the best cause, but the 
Parliament has the best men.' "t 

Under Cromwell's regime the war did not long 
hang doubtful. Marston Moor shattered the royal 
strength ; Naseby gave the king's cause its coup de 
grace. In the winter of 1646 the last fortress of the 
Cavaliers succumbed, t 

But while peace was being conquered in the 
field, momentous events were occurring at the cap- 
ital and in the Parliament. 

In 1645, Laud was executed, the penalty of his 
impeachment and conviction of high-treason. Pos- 

* Macauley, ut antea. " f Baxter's Life and Times. 
X Carlyle, Hume, Clarendon, etc. 



THOKOUGH. 



341 



terity cries "Amen" to this sentence, but it ab- 
solves the primate from the stigma of Romanism. 
" However," remarks Fuller, ££ most apparent it is, 
by several passages in his life, that he endeavored 
to take up many controversies between us and the 
church of .Home, so as to compromise the differ- 
ence, and to bring us to a vicinity, if not contiguity 
therewith ; an impossible design, if granted lawful, 
as some, every way his equals, did adjudge. For 
composition is impossible with such who will not 
agree, except all they sue for and all the charges 
of their suit be to the utmost farthing awarded 
unto them. Our reconciliation with Koine is clog- 
ged with the same impossibilities : she may he gone 
to, but will never be met with : such her pride or 
peevishness as not to stir a step to obviate any of 
a different religion. Rome will never unpope itself 
so far as to part with its pretended supremacy and 
infallibility, which cuts off all possibility of Protes- 
tants' treaty with her."* 

Parliament through these years was very busy. 
Some of its acts were good, some bad, some mixed. 
Rigid Presbyterianism was in the saddle, so that 
many of the ordinances now put forth squinted 
towards the settlement of the church down into the 
"fixed ways" of that discipline. t To recite even 
the chief of those acts which wear the countenance 
Of an ecclesiastical tendency, would swell these 
pages into volumes. Indeed Sir Simons D'Ewes 
affirms that the religious laws of the Long Parlia- 
* Fuller, vol. 3, p. 475. | Baxter, Guizot, Neale, etc. 



342 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



merit exceed in number and bulk all the statutes 
made before that time since the Conquest.* 

Very early in the contest Parliament repealed 
the anti-sabbatarian legislation of the past, and 
enacted a law compelling the decent observance of 
the day.t "Sunday," says Neale, "was observed 
with remarkable strictness, the churches being 
crowded with numerous attentive hearers three or 
four times a day; the officers of the peace patrolled 
the streets, and shut up all ale-houses; there was 
no travelling on the road nor walking in the fields, 
except in cases of necessity. Religious exercises 
were set up in private families, as reading the 
Scriptures, prayer, repetition of sermons, and sing- 
ing of psalms, which was so universal that one 
might walk through the city of London on the 
evening of the Lord's clay without seeing an idle 
person, or hearing any thing but the voice of prayer 
or praise from churches and private houses.''^ 

In 1646 the Parliament abolished the offices 
and titles of bishops and archbishops throughout 
England and Wales, and appropriated their reve- 
nues to the discharge of the national debt.§ This 
reduced very many excellent clergymen from afflu- 
ence to beggary, bishops Usher, Morton, and Hall 
being among the sufferers ; and though the two 
Houses voted them very considerable pensions, in 
lieu of their lands thus sequestered, due care was 



e D'Ewes ; cited in Fuller, vol. 3, p. 490. 

f Pari. Hist. ; Wliitelocke, Clarendon. 

t Neale, vol. 2, p. 23. § Pari. Hist, ; Newell, etc. 



THOKOUGH. 



343 



not taken to secure prompt payment ; nor would 
several of the deprived prelates so far countenance 
the votes of Parliament as to apply for this prof- 
fered aid." 

Indeed the clergy on both sides suffered terribly 
from the calamities incident to the times. Where 
the king encamped, the Cavaliers, incensed against 
the Puritan preachers as the trumpeters of the re- 
bellion, searched out their residences, plundering, 
harassing, and imprisoning with indiscriminate zeal. 
Where the Parliament hung out its banners, even 
the iron discipline of Cromwell could not check the 
insults and spoliation which awaited the Episcopal 
clergy and their sympathizers, whom the Bound- 
heads termed " malignants." No servant-girl com- 
plained of their rough gallantry. Not an ounce of 
plate was taken from the shops of the goldsmiths. 
But a Pelagian sermon, or a window in which the 
Virgin and child were painted, stirred riot and pro- 
voked a raid.t 

Another source of suffering and sorrow was the 
large number of sequestered clergymen, men de- 
prived of their livings ostensibly on account of 
their scandalous lives — avouched often by the oaths 
of witnesses proved insufficient or malicious — but 
really because Presbyterianism hungered for their 
benefices.^ But Parliament had the grace to award 
a fifth part of the revenues of the sequestered liv- 
ings to the ejected clergymen for the maintenance 

* Neale, vol. 2, p.' 49. 

f Ibid. ; Macauley, Carlyle. \ Ibid. 



344 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



of their families,* "which was a Christian act," says 
Fuller, " and one which I should have been glad to 
have seen imitated at the Restoration. But mod- 
erate men bemoaned these severities, for as much 
corruption was let out by these ejectments, many 
scandalous ministers being deservedly punished, so 
at the same time the veins of the English church 
were also emptied of much good blood. "t 

In the mean time Charles, fairly expelled from 
England by the prowess of Cromwell, had crossed 
the Tweed, and surrendered his person into the 
hands of the Scotch. Here he was held in honor- 
able captivity, while the Parliament was apprized of 
the event 4 

The king began at once to intrigue : he em- 
ployed every wile- known to his jesuitical diplomacy 
to detach the Covenanters from the English alli- 
ance ; he endeavored to cajole the Scots into the 
conclusion of a private treaty. But his efforts were 
vain.§ He closely scrutinized the behavior of the 
Presbyterian ministers towards himself, knowing 
well their omnipotent influence in Scotland. He 
did not get much consolation from them. One 
preacher reproached him to his face with his mis- 
government, and on concluding his sermon read 
this psalm : 

' ' Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, 
Thy wicked deeds to praise ?" 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 49, 95 ; Newell, Fuller, Clarendon, 
t Fuller's Worthies. X Hume, vol. 2, p. 334. 

§ Neale, vol. 2, p. 205. 



THOROUGH. 



345 



The king rose and called for that other psalm which 
begins thus : 

' ' Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray, 
For men "would me devour." 

The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen maj- 
esty, showed for once greater deference to the king 
than to the minister, and sang the hymn which 
Charles requested."" 

Posts hurried to and fro between London and 
Scotland, when news came that the king had taken 
asylum in the north ; negotiation ensued, and even- 
tually Charles was delivered to the Parliament. t 

Complaisant Presbyterianism rubbed its hands. 
The king was its prisoner ; the best livings in Eng- 
land yielded it support ; Parliament was its mouth- 
piece. But one thing remained — its indissoluble 
marriage with the civil authority $ and all was pre- 
pared for this, when lo, Cromwell entered and for- 
bade the bans. 

The army was wedded to the Independent ten- 
ets.§ It had long fretted at the evident gravitation 
of the Parliament towards intolerant Presbyterian- 
ism. It had growled when it was proposed to na- 
tionalize any creed. It favored the toleration of all 
evangelical sects. 

Now, in opposition to the Parliament at West- 
minster, a military parliament was held in the 
camp ; the army was represented in this upon re- 

* Hume, ut antea. f Hume, Clarendon, Burnet. 

% Neale, vol. 2, p. 208. 

§ "Walker, Hist, of Independency, pt. 2 ; Carlyle. 
15* 



346 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



publican principles. The king was seized by Crom- 
well's order. That great soldier was elected gene- 
ralissimo, and the troops started for London. Di- 
plomacy failed to stay their march ; and despite the 
protest of the Parliament and the belligerent atti- 
tude of Scotland, Cromwell entered the metropolis, 
quartered his regiments in Whitehall and the Meuse, 
and placed the government beneath his warriors' 
heels. * 

This military coup cle etat broke the back of the 
haughty Presbyterian majority in the Commons. 
They still possessed the forms of authority, but they 
knew that from that moment the army was the real 
arbiter of the island. 

s Hume, vol. 2, chs. 58, 59, passim ; Harris' Cromwell, etc. 



THE SCAFFOLD. 



347 



CHAPTEE XXYI. 

THE SCAFFOLD AT WHITEHALL. 

ChaBLES I. digged his own grave by perfidy. 
He was -given at least two opportunities to regain 
the lost sceptre, once by Cromwell, once by Parlia- 
ment. His political Jesuitism balked every plan 
for an accommodation. To such an extent had 
insincerity now tainted his whole nature, that his 
most devoted friends could not refrain from com- 
plaining to each other, with bitter grief and shame, 
of his crooked politics. 

Immediately after his seizure by the army, 
Cromwell had several interviews with Charles. 
The king attempted with the great captain what 
he tried successively with every section of the vic- 
torious Roundheads, to undermine him by cajolery 
and by machinations. The officers offered to guar- 
antee Charles the throne, with liberty of conscience 
in Episcopacy, provided he would consent to toler- 
ation, and govern by the law;* and this liberal 
proposition the crazy king defeated by intrigue. 
In the very midst of this effort at reconciliation, a 
secret correspondence between the king and the 
queen was discovered, in which Charles freely open- 
ed his false heart. It was clearly shown that though 
publicly recognizing the houses at Westminster as 

* Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, volume 1 ; Neale, 
Harris, Macauley. 



348 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



a legal Parliament, lie had at the same time made 
a private minute in council, declaring the recognition 
null; that though publicly disclaiming all thought 
of calling in foreign aid against his people, he had 
privately solicited aid from France, from Denmark, 
and from Lorraine ; that though publicly denying 
that he employed Papists, he bade his friends en- 
list every Papist who would serve ; that though pub- 
licly taking the sacrament at Oxford, as a pledge 
that he never would connive at Popery, he privately 
assured his wife that he intended to tolerate Popery 
in England, and that he actually authorized Lord 
Glamorgan to promise that Popery should be estab- 
lished in Ireland ; and that though now plausibly 
treating with the army, he was really plotting Crom- 
well's overthrow, and cementing a private treaty 
with the Scots." 

In anger and disgust, the long-headed soldier 
quitted the presence of the perjured monarch, fully 
convinced that either Charles must die or that mid- 
night stabbers would deprive both himself and the 
newly acquired public liberty of existence. f 

Cromwell told his royal prisoner that he would 
no longer be responsible for his safety. Charles 
took the hint. Mounting his charger at midnight, 
in 1647, he stole from Hampton Court, and hurry- 
ing across the country, sought an asylum, but found 
a prison, in the Isle of Wight. J 



* Macauley, Hist, of Eng. ; Neale, Harris, Hume, Clarendon. 
| Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters, etc. 
| Harris, Life of Charles I. ; Neale. 



THE SCAFFOLD. 



349 



At London the Presbyterians, overawed by the 
army, made no open move ; but couriers were dis- 
patched into Scotland with letters couched in words 
of bitter complaint. Unbounded liberty of con- 
science, which the Covenanters held in the utmost 
abhorrence, was enforced, they said ; and the Cov- 
enant itself was pronounced in the house, by a mem- 
ber of the Commons, to be " an almanac out of 
date."* 

Scottish Presbyterianism, influenced by these 
appeals from the coerced members, who formed the 
parliamentary majority in England, and in execu- 
tion of the treaty entered into with the king, began 
to arm for the delivery of the subdued Parliament 
and for the reinstatement of the royal captive. t 

Instantly the army quitted the capital, and 
marched to meet the Scots. J Then the Parliament 
regained courage ; it commenced negotiations with 
Charles ; politicians with their diplomacy, theolo- 
gians with their syllogisms, invaded the Isle of 
~Wight.§ Now again Charles' obstinacy defeated 
every scheme. Strangely impressed with his own 
importance,! he would make no decided concessions, 
but seemed desirous to await the course of events. 
The Parliament, on their part, though anxious to 
conclude a pacification ere the army should again 

return to domineer, still would assent to no plan 

4 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 348. 

f Chambers, Bebellions in Scotland ; Pail. Hist. ; Carlyle. 
i Hume, vol. 2, p. 3i8. § Ibid., p. 350. 

|| Neale, vol. 2, p. 238. 



350 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



which did not include the denial of toleration and 
the establishment of Presbyterianism.* 

These negotiations were still pending when the 
army, triumphant everywhere, returned to London, 
and the dawdlers at the Isle of Wight learned too 
late that they had lost the golden moment. The 
Independents were provoked at the bad faith of the 
Parliament in negotiating with. the king in their 
absence, and they began to threaten.'!' Parliament 
meantime attempted, in the face of the army, to 
close a treaty with the king ;% whereupon Cromwell 
seized the most prominent members of the Presby- 
terian majority en route to Westminster, excluded 
one hundred and sixty of the Commons from their 
seats, threw the legislative authority into the hands 
of threescore Independents, and thus " purged the 
house."§ 

Then came the final scene. The king was seized, 
brought to London, and the " rump Parliament," as 
it was nicknamed, voted his impeachment. The 
Lords said, No ; their house was closed. || The peo- 
ple were declared to be the source of all just power. 
Of this idea was born a popular tribunal, before 
which Charles Stuart was arraigned, tried, convict- 
ed, and sentenced as a tyrant, liostis humani generis.^ 
In front of the banqueting-hall of his own palace 
at Whitehall, the unhappy monarch lost his head. 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 351. f Ibid -> P- 354 - t Ibid * 

§ Ibid., p. 354 ; Pari. Hist. 

|| Macauley, Hist. England, vol. 1, p. 99. 

IT Carlyle, Hume, Harris, Clarendon, etc. 



THE SCAFFOLD. 



351 



Liberty, dipping her finger in his blood, counter- 
signed the verdict ; then turning to dazed Europe, 
she wrote upon the frontlet of the nascent Com- 
monwealth her simple motto : " Resistance to ty- 
rants is obedience to God." 

Various were the comments. The Cavaliers, 

"Whose phrase of sorrow 
Conjured the ■wandering stars, and made them stand 
Like wonder-wounded hearers," 

embalmed the dead king's memory in their heart 
of hearts. Charles became that most dangerous of 
things, a sentiment. The Presbyterians, some on 
account of their exclusion from the Commons, anx- 
ious mainly to make a point against the hated In- 
dependents, became 

" The painting of a sorrow ; 
A face without a heart," 

and clamored loudly in their turn against the "mur- 
der" of the king. The Cromwellians alone were 
unmoved. They pleaded necessity, appealed to the 
record, and said sternly, Sic semper tyrannis. 

The government was at once new-modelled. A 
Commonwealth was inaugurated. The oaths of 
supremacy and allegiance were abolished. All civil 
officers were tendered an engagement which bound 
them to be true and faithful to the de facto authori- 
ties.* The representative system was ably reform- 
ed ;f and as many of the ousted Commons as would 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 315 ; Carlyle, Harris. 

■f Clarendon. The manner in which this was done extorts the 
warm praise of this old royalist historian. 



352 HISTOEY OF THE PTJBITANS. 



sign the engagement were returned to the Parlia- 
ment.* A constitution as perfect as any then known 
was framed. The executive authority was vested 
in a Council of State ; and England, emancipated 
from thraldom to a king, assumed the garb of repub- 
licanism, and declared the Commonwealth to be the 
lawful heir of the dead monarch. 

Consummate wisdom swayed the national coun- 
sels, and success awaited democratic politics. Vane, 

" Than whom a better senator ne'er held 
The helm of Eoine, when gowns, not arms, repelled 
The fierce Epirot and the Afran bold, 
Keen both to settle peace and to nnfold 
The drift of hollow states, hard to be spelled," 

became the leader of the Commons. Milton, 

"Dear son of memory, great heir of fame," 

was chosen secretary of state ; while above all 
loomed Cromwell. 

But a mere proclamation did not settle the new 
Commonwealth. Conspiracies were formed. The 
army mutinied.t These half-born emeutes were at 
once strangled ; and then, behold, another hostile 
movement threatened to mar all. The Independents 
were equally odious to the Romanists and to the 
Presbyterians. The Romanist head-quarters were 
in Ireland ; the Presbyterian camp was in Scotland. 
Roth, on the death of the king, transferred their 
allegiance to his eldest son Charles II. f 

* Keale, vol. 2, p. 315 ; Guizot ; Godwin, Hist. Commonwealth. 
\ Macauley ; Guizot, Cromwell and Commonwealth ; Godwin, 

etc. 

\. Guizot's Cromwell and the Commonwealth. ; Commons' Jour. 



THE SCAFFOLD. 



353 



With an energy which never flagged, the Puri- 
tan statesmen met and baffled this danger. Crom- 
well was sent into Ireland to reduce that turbulent 
province to submission. He took with him four- 
teen thousand "Ironsides." This army had the 
appearance of a camp-meeting. The day before 
embarkation was observed as a day of fasting and 
prayer; Cromwell himself expounded some parts of 
Scripture pertinent to the occasion. Then the ex- 
pedition sailed; not an oath was heard, and the 
soldiers spent their leisure hours in reading their 
Bibles, in singing psalms, and in religious confer- 
ences."" 

"Entirely amazing to us in these material days, 
all this," observes Carlyle with characteristic quaint- 
ness. " These are the longest heads and the stout- 
est hearts in England, and this is the thing they do ; 
this is the way they, for their part, begin dispatch 
of business. The looker-on may, if he be an earnest 
man, gaze with very many thoughts for which there 
is no word. Does it look like madness ? Madness 
lies close by, as madness does to the highest wisdom 
of man's life always; but this is not mad. This 
stern element, it is the mother of the lightnings and 
the splendors."f 

Nothing could stay such men. Ireland, which 
had never been subdued during the five centuries 
of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of 

* Guizot, Cromwell and the Commonwealth ; Commons' Jour- 
nal ; Whitelocke's Memorials. 

f Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, vol. 1, p. 337. 



354 



HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the first Norman settlers, was now subjugated by 
these warlike saints in less than a twelvemonth. 
Cromwell "resolved to put an end to that conflict 
of races and creeds which had so long distracted 
the island. Accordingly he gave loose reign to the 
tierce enthusiasm of his followers, waged war re- 
sembling that which Israel waged on the Canaan- 
ites, smote the idolaters with the edge of the sword," 
and supplied the void which death had made by 
pouring in Anglo-Saxon colonists of the Protestant 
faith. " Strange to say, under this iron rule the 
conquered country began to wear an outward face 
of prosperity. Districts which had recently been as 
wild as those where the first white settlers of Con- 
necticut were contending with the red men, were in 
a brief space transformed into the likeness of Kent 
and Norfolk. New buildings, new plantations, new 
roads, were everywhere seen. The rent of Irish 
estates rose fast, and soon English land-owners 
began to complain that they were met in every 
market by the products of the sister island, and to 
clamor for protecting laws."* 

Having thus performed this mission, cruelly, 
wickedly, but effectually, Cromwell crossed the 
Irish sea, marched to London, reported to the 
Council of State, and then without pause swept into 
Scotland. " The young king was there. He had 
consented to profess himself a Presbyterian, and 

- Macauley, Hist, of Eng., vol. 1, p. 101. This summary of 
the great English rhetorician is amply substantiated by all other 
authoritative writers. 



THE SCAFFOLD. 



355 



to subscribe to the Covenant ; and in return for 
these concessions, the austere Puritans who bore 
sway at Edinburgh had permitted him to hold, 
under their inspection and control, a melancholy 
court in the long deserted halls of Holyrood. This 
mock royalty was of short duration. In two great 
battles, Dunbar and Worcester, Cromwell annihi- 
lated the military force of Scotland. Charles, nar- 
rowly escaping capture, skulked across the sea. 
The ancient kingdom of the Stuarts was reduced, 
for the first time, to profound submission. Of that 
independence so manfully defended against the 
ablest and the mightiest of the Plantagenets, no 
vestige was left. The English Parliament made 
laws for Scotland; English judges held assizes 
there. Even that stubborn church, which had held 
its own against so many assailants, now scarce 
dared to utter an audible murmur."* 

England wearied into peace, Ireland subjugated 
into peace, Scotland harried into peace, the army 
everywhere successful, Cromwell the hero of the 
island — such was the political situation at the close 
of 1651. 

* Macauley, ut antea. 



356 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Under the Commonwealth toleration was broad- 
er than it had ever before been in the island. The 
Covenant oath was discarded ; no other civil qual- 
ification was required than the engagement: this 
opened the doors of political office ; it also was 
sufficient to obtain any vacant benefice.* Many 
of the Episcopal divines now made their submis- 
sion to the statu quo. Thus they gained a foot- 
hold, a half -recognition ; for though they might not 
read the Liturgy in form, they were permitted to 
frame their prayers as near it as .they chose. 
Many Episcopal assemblies were connived at, 
where the Prayer-book itself was used. But when 
these clergymen were discovered to be plotters 
against the state, this liberty was suspended. Still 
it is said that the Episcopalians would not have 
been denied open toleration if they had consented 
to give security for their acquiescent behavior. t 

The sectaries were very numerous ; and con- 
temporaneous writers placed the Independents at 
the head of these, not as having the larger number 
of disciples, but because they were the most influ- 
ential, and on account of their tolerant principles, 

e Godwin, Hist, of the Commonwealth ; Whitelocke. 
t Ncale, vol. 2, p. 349. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 357 



since they insisted upon granting perfect freedom 
of conscience to all who agreed in the fundamen- 
tals of religion, and stood ready to fellowship every 
evangelical sect.* 

The Baptists also were a rising sect. In the 
early years of the civil war they had forty-seven 
congregations in England.t Although the hand of 
authority had fallen heavy upon them through a 
hundred years, they were worthy, industrious, de- 
vout, and peaceable citizens, mostly of the middle 
and lower classes ; but they could point to several 
of the ablest and most learned ministers in Britain 
as their coreligionists and champions.:): 

It was under the .Commonwealth that the soci- 
ety of Friends first acquired public fame.§ In 1648, 
George Fox, their most celebrated teacher, began 
to preach. He was of humble birth, and being- 
attracted towards sober thoughts, he devoted him- 
self to religion.il His chief tenet was, that "peo- 
ple should receive the inner teaching of the Spirit 
of Christ, and make that a rule."! He taught that 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 211, et seq. ; Baxter's Life and Times ; 
Wliitelocke. 

+ Haynes, Hist, of the Baptist Denomination ; Orchard, Hist, 
of Foreign Baptists ; Neale, vol. 2. Mr. Cornwall of Emmanuel 
college, and Mr. Toombs, educated at Oxford, were accounted 
their most learned men at this time. " Their confession consisted 
of fifty-two articles, and was strictly Oalvinistic in the doctrinal 
part, and according to the Independent discipline." Neale, vol. 
2, p. 111. % Ibid. 

§ Neale, vol. 2, pp. 332-334; Sewel, Hist, of the Quakers. 

|| Wagstaff, Hist, of Society of Friends ; Sewel. 

IT Ibid. 



358 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



every thing depended upon the anointing of the 
Spirit, and that God, who made the world, did not 
dwell in temples made with hands. Those peculi- 
arities of language, dress, and manner which now 
distinguish this sect, bear the seal of his imprima- 
tur, and owe their origin to him. 

Misunderstood and ill-reported, the Quakers — 
as they were termed because they trembled when 
they spoke* — were long cruelly oppressed. Their 
refusal to recognize any title and to take any oath, 
seemed to the magistrates of the time to be wanton 
whims of disrespect. Outrage, in this case as in 
all others, bred fanaticism, and many of the Qua- 
kers went to absurd extremes. But when it was 
understood that their peculiar ideas were consci- 
entiously held, they were treated with less rigor, 
and society welcomed in them some of its best and 
most philanthropic members.f 

The Presbyterians were the most numerous of 
the sects, and they were the descendants of the 
bishops in their opposition to free conscience.^ 
It was against them that the army arrayed itself, 
that Vane inveighed, that Cromwell thundered, and 
that Milton wrote those celebrated lines, addressed 
to the great regicide : 

' ' Much remains 
To conquer still ; peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war ; new foes arise, 
Threatening to bind our souls in secular chains : 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 332, 333. 

t Baxter's Life and Times ; Neale. 

\ Neale, vol. 2, p. 365. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 



359 



Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw."* 

This intolerant spirit was largely suppressed by 
the Council of State; but the Presbyterians were I 
fretful, and much more troublesome than the Epis- 
copalian or the Komanist parties all through these 
years. t They had played a desperate game for 
church aggrandizement, and almost won it, and lost 
it ; and writhing in exile from "Westminster, they 
never could feel reconciled to the result. 

" An act had passed in 1649 for the propagation 
of the gospel in Wales, and commissioners were 
appointed for ejecting ignorant and scandalous 
clergymen, and replacing them by fitter preachers. 
Pursuant to this law, it is said that within three 
years there were one hundred and fifty good preach- 
ers in the thirteen W 7 elsh counties, most of whom 
spoke three or four times a week. In every mar- 
ket-place there was placed one, and in most large 
towns two school-masters, able, learned, and uni- 
versity men ; the tithes were all employed as di- 
rected by the Parliament, that is, in the mainte- 
nance of godly ministers, in the payment of taxes 
and officers, in the remuneration of school-masters, 
and in the payment of their fifths to the wives and 
children of sequestered clergymen. "J 

The whole island was kept in excellent order.§ 

s Milton, Poetical Works, sonnet on "Cromwell." 

f Neale ; Milton, Prose Works; Godwin, Hist, of the Com- 
monwealth. X Neale, vol. 2, p. 350. 

§ Godwin, Hist, of Commonwealth ; Whitelocke ; Commons' t 
Journal. 



360 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS, 



The troops were held in exact discipline ; money 
was plenty ; the exchequer, always heretofore bare 
and hungry, was now fat and full; the civil list was 
well paid ;* commerce spread its wings on every 
sea ; justice was carefully and promptly adminis- 
tered ;t vice was suppressed and punished ; " there 
was a great appearance of devotion ; the Sabbath 
was strictly kept ; none might walk the streets in 
time of divine service; tipplers were scourged from 
the public-houses ; Sunday evenings were spent in 
catechizing the children, in singing psalms, and in 
other acts of family devotion, insomuch that an 
acquaintance with the principles of religion and the 
gift of prayer increased prodigiously among the 
common people.":]: 

It is also among the trophies of the Common- 
wealth that it mi gagged the press. Grown wiser 
than the bishops, and braver than the Presbyterian 
Parliament, the Council of State made no effort to 
check polemics. Royalist pamphlets of the most 
seductive and seditious kind were openly printed 
and widely circulated ; and the state disdained to 
notice these in any other way than by confuting 
them. To the old warfare of swords succeeded a 
nobler warfare of intellects ; brains, not muscle, met 
in the arena and grappled for the victory. In these 
contests, Milton was the great champion of the Com- 
monwealth ; and his sublime and austere genius 



8 Carlyle ; Forster's Statesmen of the Commonwealth, 
f Hume, vol. 2 ; Forster, etc. 
t Neale, vol. 2, p. 347, 348. 



THE COMMONWEALTH.. 



361 



enabled him to bear off a trophy where any other 
would have balked. His political pamphlets, and 
especially his first and second defence of the peo- 
ple of England against the hireling assault of the 
continental pedant Salmasius, in which he upholds 
the principles as well as the actions of the revolu- 
tion, are models of argumentative declamation, and 
before them the most gorgeous passages of Burke 
sink into insignificance.* 

The diplomatic record of the Commonwealth is 
as admirable as its domestic management. Never 
before had England been so influential, so irresist- 
ible, t Richelieu, in dying, bade his successor steer 
clear of " those rough-shod Puritans Spain and 
Erance made haste to recognize the new-launched 
government ;§ the Dutch Republic quailed before 
the thunder of Blake's guns ; Europe at large 
treated the island with unprecedented considera- 
tion, and left its card upon the marble table of the 
Council of State with deferential awe. 

But notwithstanding the blaze of glory in which 
its policy was sheeted, the government was not pop- 
ular at home. It was an essentially revolutionary 
junto ; when peace came, the conditions of its exist- 
ence began to fail. The feverish, morbid energy 
which had hitherto exhausted itself in the subjuga- 
tion of obstacles, was now forced to seek a new 

° Concerning Milton's success in these literary combats there 
is but one opinion. See his various lives ; also Guizot, Godwin, 
Forster, Clarendon, Carlyle, Macauley, etc. 

f Godwin, Hist. Commonwealth ; Hume, Neale, Eorster, etc. 

\ Guizot, Forster. § Guizot's Cromwell, etc., vol. 1, ch. 3. 

Puritans. \Q 



362 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



vent, and it began to harass the people. Stretches 
of authority which are necessary in times of civil 
commotion, and which martial law sanctions, under 
a pacification become abuses and strut as tyranny. 
All hawkers and public singers were suppressed; 
and whenever any one was found exercising either 
of these callings, he was seized and taken to a 
house of correction to be whipped as a common 
rogue." The publication of proceedings and de- 
bates before the high courts of justice was strin- 
gently prohibited. t In contravention of the laws 
and traditions of the country, the House of Com- 
mons, in repeated instances, constituted itself a 
judicial bureau, and condemned offenders, whom it 
could not hope to reach in any other way, to exile, 
to heavy fines, to the pillory, and to prolonged im- 
prisonment without a trial.J 

For such extra-judicial action, with its concom- 
itant vexations, wide-spread and rankling, no vigor, 
no talent of administration could compensate in the 
popular estimation. It was thought that the best 
governments were the most unobtrusive ; that be- 
neath the aegis of their laws society stood sheltered, 
while authority itself kept out of sight, and was felt 
only through its benefactions. 

Besides, the Commonwealth professed to base 
itself upon the people ; their will was its only title- 

* Commons' Journal, vol. G, pp. 27G, 298. 
f Ibid. ; Whitelocke, p. 310. 

% Ibid. Guizot, in Cromwell and the Common-wealth, has 
admirably analyzed this passage in English history, and to his 
rationale we refer all curious readers. See vol. 1, pp. 69, et seq. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 363 

deed. It was not, like the monarchy it had tried 
and beheaded, covered with the hoar of age, linked 
through a thousand associations with men's mem- 
ory of the past;, grouted in the habits and the stat- 
utes of a thousand years. No ; it was the negative 
of these ; and remembering the old Latin law, ob- 
sta principiis, it should have created for itself a 
higher sanction than antique custom, and guarded 
against the beginning of discontent by anchoring it- 
self in the hearts of all Englishmen. 

This the " Bump" parliament not only failed to 
do, but worse, it had the hardihood to alienate its 
only supporter, Cromwell, by breaking a lance 
against the army. Conqueror and master, it be- 
held arising in its midst a conqueror and a master 
against whom it was incapable of defending itself. 
The new-born Commonwealth felt that Cromwell 
domineered over it; at every crisis of peril or alarm 
it had recourse to him, and when the crisis passed, 
it grew terrified at the credit and renown which he 
had acquired by saving it. And Cromwell, on his 
side, while lavish in his demonstrations of the most 
humble devotedness to the Commonwealth, gave 
continual expression to his dissatisfaction with 
many features of the governmental policy. * 

Each one began to seek for a pretext to destroy 
the other. Cromwell found one first. 

At the close of their session in 1652, the Com- 
mons, instead of dissolving and giving way to a new 
parliament, voted to go over the legal time, and 

* Guizot, vol. 1, p. 71 ; D'Aubigne's Protectorate. 



364 HISTOBY OF THE PUBITANS. 



they elected another council of state out of their 
own body.* A little later, in preparation for a war 
with Holland, they began to augment the fleet out 
of the land forces, a proceeding which tended to 
disarm Cromwell by depriving him of his devoted 
soldiers. f The astute general saw the danger, and 
as usual, acted with prompt vigor. The army de- 
clined to serve in the navy, and immediately sent 
up a petition in favor of reform and a dissolution 
of Parliament. J The Parliament, angry at what it 
termed the "insolence" of its servants, passed an 
act making it treason to petition for their dissolu- 
tion^ Then the storm burst. Cromwell summoned 
a council of officers at Whitehall ; all agreed that 
the Commons should be forced to give way ; and in 
the spring of 1653 the great soldier entered West- 
minster Hall, expelled the Commons from their 
seats before the guns of a file of musketeers, and 
seizing the archives, locked and double-barred the 
doors of the representative chamber. Thence he 
proceeded to the Council of State, and stamping 
them out of existence, freed England from the 
curse of a Venetian oligarchy.! 

Although the Cavaliers, the Presbyterians, and 
the Levellers, acting from very different motives, 
loaded Cromwell with invectives and formed con- 
spiracies against his person, his action received the 

* Commons' Journal, vol. 6 ; Ludlow's Memoirs. f Ibid. 

J Hutchinson's Memoirs ; Ludlow's Mem. ; Wliitelocke, etc. 
§ Macauley, Guizot, Whitelocke, Southey's Life of Cromwell. 
|| Commons' Journal ; Forster's Statesmen of the Common- 
wealth. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 



365 



hearty sympathy of the masses, and this — since in 
that revolutionary epoch all legal safeguards were 
trodden down — is his sufficient warrant. 

A new state was at once settled ; that parlia- 
ment which has passed into history as Barebones 
Parliament — so called from one of its most active 
members — was convened, and Cromwell, as chief 
executive, was clothed with the powers of a Dutch 
stadtholder. Five months passed unmarked by 
events of any ecclesiastical importance. Then 
Cromwell, finding that his legislature questioned 
the authority under which they met, and that he 
was in danger of being deprived of the restricted 
power which was absolutely necessary to his per- 
sonal safety and to the general welfare, dismissed 
"Praise God Barebones" and his followers, as he 
had the "Long" and the "Hump" parliaments.* 
Once more the government was new modelled, a 
form which squinted towards monarchy was elab- 
orated,'!' and under this Cromwell, assisted by a 
council, assumed supreme authority, under the title 
of "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland.":!: 

This constitutes what is called Cromwell's "usur- 
pation." Perhaps it is rightly named ; but we ap- 
prehend that it would be difficult to show in what 
respect he was a greater offender than the author- 
ities whom he superseded. Undoubtedly he trans- 

° Ludlow's Memoirs ; Guizot ; Hutchinsou's Memoirs. 

f Guizot, vol. 2, pp. 35-123 ; Hume ; D'Aubignd's Protectorate. 

X Ibid. ; T. Cromwell, Life and Times of Oliver Cromwell. 



366 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



gressed the constitutional law of England ; and so 
did the Long Parliament ; so also did the Common- 
wealth. The apology for all, is that Latin which 
justified the first appeal to arms — sains populi su- 
premo, lex. 

If it be pleaded that parliaments came from the 
people and represented their opinion, the ready 
response is, that this mantle wraps Cromwell's ad- 
ministration also in its folds ; for the peaceful 
acquiescence of three kingdoms made his acts 
theirs. We think, with Macauley, that "a good 
constitution is infinitely better than the best des- 
pot." We also suspect, with him, " that at the 
time of which we speak the violence of religious 
and political enmities rendered a normal, constitu- 
tional settlement next to impossible," the choice 
lying not between Cromwell and strict republican- 
ism, but between Cromwell and the Stuarts. The 
student of history, on a fair comparison of the 
events of the Protectorate with the thirty years 
which succeeded the Restoration, cannot choose but 
cry "Amen" to the "usurpation" of Oliver Cromwell. 

On the day following Cromwell's dissolution of 
the Parliament, a crowd collected at the door of the 
House of Commons, to read an immense placard 
which had been placed there during the night by 
some witty Cavalier, who sought to avenge his ru- 
ined cause by a squib ; it bore this inscription : 

'* THIS HOUSE TO LET UNFURNISHED."* 

* Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 194: ; cited in Guizot's Cromwell, vol. 
I, pp. 357, 358. 



THE PROTECTORATE. 



367 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

THE PEOTECTOEATE. 

Now, take it all in all, commenced the most re- 
markable administration which Europe had ever 
seen. A well-to-do yeoman, aided by his own ge- 
nius and passionate energy, had ascended by rapid 
steps from the floor of Parliament to the royal plat- 
form of a hundred kings. Clothed in the purple of 
the ousted Stuarts, he affirmed that his assumption 
of the government was not so much the effect of his 
own ambition as of a bold resolution not to permit 
the nation to fall back into anarchy and blood. He 
added, " Here I sit, sword in hand, and I am not to 
be jostled out of the saddle by seditious murmurs, 
by votes, or by resolutions." 

Ere long the marvellous statesmanship of the 
puritanical Protector placated, England into quie- 
tude, and made the Continent his vassal. 

Cromwell first turned his attention to domestic 
affairs. Three parties in the state were his open 
enemies : the Royalists, the Presbyterians, and the 
Levellers.* The royalists were irreconcilable ; they 
plotted to assassinate him, and were always on the 
qui vive for an emeute. The Presbyterians " were in 
principle for the king and the covenant ; after the 
battle of Worcester they were terrified into com- 
« Neale, vol. 2, pp. 370-374 ; Guizot, Hume. 



36S 



HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



pliance with the Commonwealth. But when Crom- 
well broke that government in pieces, his surprising 
advancement filled them with new fears, for they 
considered him not only a usurper, but a sectarian 
who would countenance the free exercise of relig- 
ion, provided only that men would live peaceably 
under his government ; and though he assured them 
that he would continue religion on the footing of 
the existing Establishment, nothing would satisfy 
them so long as their discipline was disarmed of its 
coercive power."* 

The levellers were split into two parties ; one of 
them was enamoured of radical democracy, and as 
its chiefs were deists who cared little for religion, 
Cromwell nicknamed them the heathen. The other 
was composed of fifth monarchy men ; these were 
heated enthusiasts, who lived in expectation of the 
speedy personal reign of Christ. They were fierce 
to pull down all churches, to destroy the clergy, 
and " to leave religion free, without either encour- 
agement or restraint."*)' 

These three parties hated each other as bitterly 
as they detested the Protector; and Cromwell, with 
infinite tact, played one off against the other, and 
thus, in these mutual bickerings, dulled the keen 
edge of that resentment which might have cut his 
authority if turned unitedly against himself. J 

His chief supporters were the Independents, 



c Ncsale, vol. 2, pp. 370, 371. 

f Ibid. ; Godwin, Hist. Commonweal th ; Forster's Statesmen, 
etc. % Ibid. 



THE PEOTECTOEATE. 



369 



who looked upon him as the head of their party, 
because he was averse to church power and for 
universal toleration ; the city of London, whose 
merchants craved peace and a stable government 
as the chief necessity of successful trade ; and the 
army, whose pride and affection knew no bounds.* 
"The Protector's wisdom," says Neale," appeared 
in nothing more than in his unwearied endeavors to 
make all religious parties easy. He indulged the 
army in its enthusiastic raptures, and sometimes 
joined in the prayers and sermons of the camp. He 
countenanced the Presbyterians by assuring them 
that he would maintain the public ministry. He 
supported the Independents by making them his 
chaplains, by preferring them to considerable liv- 
ings in the church and universities, and by uniting 
them in one commission with the Presbyterians as 
triers of all such as desired to be admitted to ben- 
efices, "t 

A civil establishment of religion of a peculiar 
kind was now in existence. Christianity was not 
left solely to the voluntary principle for support, 
but a part of the old revenues of the church, and 
also grants of public money, were appropriated to 
this use. Yet this establishment was unique, and 
differed essentially from any that had preceded it, 
and from that which came in with the Eestoration. 
The purpose of the Presbyterians had been and 
still was, to twist the English Establishment into a 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 370, 371 ; Godwin, Hist. Commonwealth ; 
Forster's Statesmen, etc. f Neale, vol. 2, p. 364. 

16* 



370 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



form similar to tliat of the Scottish church, in which 
all religionists except themselves should be exclud- 
ed from the protection and pecuniary support of the 
state. This the influence of the more liberal par- 
ties had always held in check; and now, under the 
Protectorate, all Protestants holding evangelical 
sentiments were invited to nestle under the wing of 
the Establishment.* 

"An agreement in the fundamental truths of 
Christianity, together with the possession of per- 
sonal piety and adequate ministerial gifts, were the 
only requisites demanded of those who sought to 
enjoy ecclesiastical benefices. Triers were appoint- 
ed by the government to ascertain the qualifications 
of clergymen; and though ridicule in abundance 
has been poured upon the proceedings of these 
men, it has been proved that, on the whole, they 
discharged their duty with rectitude and prudence. 
Baxter, whose independence and integrity of judg- 
ment in such matters is universally conceded, ac- 
knowledges that these commissioners did abun- 
dance of good to the church. t No doubt there 
were instances in which conscientious high church- 
men were roughly dealt with — and clergymen who 
thus suffered wrong for the sake of principle are 
deserving of honor — yet, for the most part by far, 
those who were excluded by the triers had, by their 
scandalous lives, proved themselves totally unfit for 
the holy office which they had assumed. "J 

* Stonglij on, Spiritual Heroes, p. 250, et seq. 

f Ibid. J Ibid. ; Neale, vol. 2, pp. 365, 366. 



THE PKOTECTOKATE. 



371 



Cromwell personally drew around him men of 
different denominations, and divided among them 
his favors. We have seen that, though the Pres- 
byterians formed the greater number of those who 
were supported by the state, ministers of other 
sects were admitted to share in its emoluments. 
The same liberality prevailed at court. Though 
the Protector was most attached to the Indepen- 
dents, he also employed Presbyterians in his ser- 
vice. Manton prayed at his inauguration, Baxter 
preached in his chapel, and Calamy was admitted 
to his councils. Moderate Episcopalians and Bap- 
tists might be found in the pulpits of parish church- 
es ; and in some parts of England there were county 
union associations, in which ministers of the vari- 
ous sects assembled for fraternal conference and 
prayer. 

Episcopacy and popery were suppressed by 
statute, because they were esteemed peculiarly 
inimical and dangerous at that time ; yet there 
were supporters of both systems whom the Pro- 
tector generously befriended. He treated Brown- 
rigg, bishop of Exeter, with great respect ; saved 
Dr. Barnard's life, and made him his almoner ; in- 
vited Archbishop Usher to visit him, evinced a 
warm and sincere regard for his many virtues, and 
when that excellent prelate died, commanded his 
interment in Westminster Abbey, and contributed 
two hundred pounds to his funeral.* 

Even Bomanists were kindly treated if they 

* Stougliton, Neale, Macauley, Forster. 



372 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



conducted themselves with propriety. Sir Kenelm 
Digby, a well-known papist, was lodged by Crom- 
well at "Whitehall ; and the penal code against 
priests was often suspended under his hand and 
seal.* "I should think my heart not an honest 
one," wrote Sir Kenelm to Secretary Thurlow, " if 
the blood about it were not warmed with any, the 
least imputation upon my respect and duty to his 
highness, to whom I owe so much."t 

Such is the glowing record which impartial his- 
tory makes of the broad and Christian toleration 
of the great Puritan "usurper." Yet this very lat- 
itude, one of the best evidences of his high, Chris- 
tian principle, has been made the basis of a sneer 
at his religious sincerity. " How little religion was 
the concern, or so much as any longer the pretence 
of Cromwell," says Bishop Kennet, " appears from 
this, that in the large instrument of the government 
of the Commonwealth, which was the magna charta 
of the new constitution, there is not a word of 
churches, synods, ministers, nor any thing but the 
Christian religion in general, with liberty to all dif- 
fering in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or 
discipline, publicly held forth. "J 

To mature thinkers, this fact, here stated as a 
fault, is the best title-deed to immortality which 
Cromwell could desire. 

Under the Protectorate very great attention 



• Stoughton, Neale, Macauley, Forster. 
t Ibid. ; Ludlow's Memoirs, etc. 
X Cited in Neale, vol. 2, p. 362, 363. 



THE PEOTECTOEATE. 



373 



was paid to the cultivation of letters ; schools and 
school -masters abounded; and the universities 
were kept under the careful supervision of the gov- 
ernment.* 

Oxford especially was tenderly nurtured. That 
classic old town had been strictly royalist in the 
earlier years of the civil war, and the king had 
made it his head-quarters. Study was routed ; the 
university became a garrison. The gownsman was 
transformed into a military cavalier; the college 
cap was doffed for the steel helmet. t The terrce filii 
who continued their residence employed their wits 
in writing weekly mercuries and satirical pamph- 
lets, in which the Parliament was lampooned, while 
the Puritan divines were scoffed at as infamous, ig- 
norant, and hypocritical traitors, t 

But when the king's cause went down before 
Cromwell's "Ironsides" at Marston Moor and 
Naseby, the University was revolutionized. Mild 
measures, which were essayed hj the Parliament 
at the outset, proved ineffectual.! Then sharper 
measures were tried. All riot was forcibly re- 
pressed. The halls, shattered in the recent wars, 
were rebuilt, the officers and townsmen who had 
usurped the old scholastic chambers were expelled ; 
the bursaries emptied in the service of the king- 
were refilled ; the plate, melted down in aid of the 
royalist cause, was replaced. The Oxfordians were 



* Godwin, Hist. Commonwealth ; Forster's Statesmen, etc. 
t Wood, Hist, and Antiq. of Oxford. 

t Neale, Wood, Stoughton. § Ibid. 



374 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



obliged to subscribe the Solemn League and Covenant, 
which caused a great flutter in the dove-cote, but 
of which they were estopped from complaining by 
their own acts, since, in their day, scholars were 
obliged to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles — and 
" old things became new."* 

"Drab-colored" Puritanism now became the 
order of the day at Oxford. The Liturgy was no 
longer chanted in the college chapel. The surplice 
vanished from the desk. The altar rails were re- 
moved. The communion-table was placed in the 
aisle. The Genevan cloak and cap appeared in the 
pulpit. Images and crucifixes were removed. Even 
the city underwent a change. Rigid Presbyterian- 
ism suppressed the olden amusements ; the theatre 
was closed. In the streets, instead of the slashed 
doublet, the love-locks, and the drooping feather 
of the Cavalier, the close-cropped hair, the high- 
crowned hat, and the plain cloak of the Roundhead 
became predominant.f 

Strict attention to study, sobriety of deportment, 
and external piety were enforced. 

Under Cromwell's regime the severity of this 
Presbyterian discipline was somewhat relaxed. No 
oath, excepting to support the government, was ex- 
acted, and a number of Independents were sprin- 
kled among the proctors and college " dons."J But 
imperious orders were given for the promotion of 



* Wood, Hist, and Antiq. of Oxford ; Neale, vol. 2, chs. 19, 
passim. t Ibid.; Stoughton. 

% "Wood, Neale, Whitelocke. 



THE PKOTECTOBATE. 



375 



the interests of learning ; and a diligent cultivation 
of literature as well as religion ensued. It was 
also enjoined that the greatest familiarity with the 
learned languages should be encouraged by the 
employment, at specified times, of Latin and Greek 
in common conversation by the fellows, scholars, 
and students.* These studies were held to be even 
more important in that age than they are in ours, 
because Latin especially was the vernacular of the 
learned world, and diplomacy itself spoke through 
that tongue. 

In 1650 the members of the university of Oxford 
unanimously elected Oliver Cromwell to the office of 
chancellor.t " Warriors seem by no means the fit- 
test persons for such a position," observes Stough- 
ton, " but Oxford still retains a partiality for men 
of that class. The university in our time has placed 
Wellington in the chair once occupied by Crom- 
well ; and we may all agree with Kahl, that ' these 
are the two most remarkable chancellors that Ox- 
ford ever had. 5 However, Cromwell had something 
to recommend him for that post besides his mili- 
tary renown and political power. He was any thing 
but an illiterate and tasteless fanatic. Waller the 
poet, who was his kinsman, says he was very well 
read in Greek and Latin story; and Whitelocke 
informs us that he was capable of holding a dis- 
course in Latin with the Swedish ambassador. 
Cromwell was also a lover of the fine arts. He 
saved the painted windows of King's College chapel, 

w Wood, Neale, Whitelocke. f Ibid., Stoughton. 



376 HISTOBY OF THE PUBITANS. 

V 

Cambridge, from spoliation, carefully preserved the 
cartoons, and would permit no injury to be done to 
those noble specimens of architecture, Hampton 
Court and Windsor Castle. He had a rare power 
to control men. 1 The natural king,' says Carlyle, 
'is one who melts all wills into his own.' This 
Cromwell did ; and surely the man who employed 
Milton to draw up his state papers, and Simon to 
engrave his coins, could not be destitute of taste. 
He was, moreover, fond of music ; and when the 
organ was taken down at Magdalen College, he 
ordered it conveyed to Hampton Court, where he 
had it placed in the great gallery, and was accus- 
tomed to soothe the cares of politics by listening 
to the tones of that noble instrument. Nor should 
it be forgotten that Cromwell proved himself a pa- 
tron of literature. His well-known permission to 
"Walton to import paper for his noble Polyglot duty 
free, is one example culled from many."* 

* Stoughton, pp. 198, 199. 

"An inventory of sums contributed to the college library at 
Glasgow is preserved. The first leaf contains this memorandum : 
' His majesty's contribution was graciously granted at Setoun, 14th 
July, 1633 : Charles Bex. It is our gracious pleasure to grant, for 
the advancement of the library and fabric of the College of Glas- 
gow, the sum of two hundred pounds sterling. ' So much for the 
promise of Charles. The performance was from the privy-purse of 
the Protector twenty-one years afterwards, and is thus recorded : 
'This sum was paid by the Lord Protector, a. d. 1654.'" Dib- 
din's Northern Tour, vol. 2, p. 713. Cromwell also settled one 
hundred pounds per year on a divinity professor at Oxford ; he 
gave twenty rare manuscripts to the Bodleian library; and he 
erected and endowed a college at Durham for the benefit of the 
northern counties. Neale. 



THE PEOTECTOEATE 



377 



The moderation, the wisdom, the equity, and the 
consummate success of Cromwell's internal govern- 
ment, extort a grudged encomium even from the 
reluctant pen of Hume himself, who was at once a 
tory and a sceptic. " It must be acknowledged," 
he says, "that in his civil and domestic adminis- 
tration, the Protector displayed as great regard 
both to justice and clemency as his usurped au- 
thority, derived from no law and founded only on 
the sword, could possibly permit. All the chief 
offices in the courts of judicature were filled with 
men of integrity ; amid the violence of faction, the 
decrees of the judges were upright and impartial ; 
and to every man the law was the great rule of con- 
duct and behavior.' He was pleased that the su- 
perior lenity of his regime should in every thing be 
remarked."* 

Baxter, who was far from being partial to 
Cromwell, writing after the Restoration, says, " All 
men were suffered to live quietly and to enjoy their 
properties under the Protectorate. The Lord Pro- 
tector removed the errors and prejudices which 
hindered the success of the gospel, especially con- 
sidering that godliness had countenance and repu- 
tation as well as liberty; whereas before, if it did 
not appear in all the fetters and formalities of the 
times, it was the way to common shame and ruin. 
When I compare these times with those, I conclude 
for the future to think that land happy where the 
people have but bare liberty to be as good as they 
* Hume, vol. 2, p. 398, 399. 



378 HISTORY OF THE PUKITANS. 



are willing ; and if countenance and maintenance 
be added to liberty, as then they were, and toler- 
ated errors and sects be but forced to keep the 
peace, I shall hereafter not much fear such tolera- 
tion, nor despair that truth will bear down its ad- 
versaries."* 

But while Cromwell's domestic administration 
was thus admirable, his foreign policy was no less 
energetic and effective. Milton, who had literally 
torn out his eyes as an oblation to liberty — for he 
contracted his blindness by over-application in the 
compilation of his pamphlets in defence of the rev- 
olution — was continued under Cromwell in the sec- 
retaryship of state, though he had an assistant in 
his excellent and devoted friend Andrew Marvel, f 
Sir Matthew Hale was made Chief-justice of the 
Common Pleas ; Thurlow held the State Bureau ; 
and Monk, who was destined one day to betray the 
liberties of his country, was entrusted with the gov- 
ernment of Scotland.}: 

In 1654, Ireland and Scotland were incorporat- 
ed ; and from that time the arms of both those na- 
tions were quartered with those of England.§ 

In the first months of the Protectorate the 
Dutch had sued for peace ; and this the fame of 
Cromwell enabled him to conclude without the cer- 
emony of a formal treaty. He submitted his con- 

* Eaxter, Life and Times. 

f Life and Times of John Milton, Amer. Tr. Society, 1866. 
X Hume, Guizot, Godwin, Forster, DAubigne's Protectorate. 
§ Ibid. ; Harris, Life of Cromwell. 



THE PEOTECTOEATE. 379 



ditions. Abatements were requested. " Sign," said 
the imperious Protector. Holland hastened to do 
so, and the signature robbed her of the hard-earned 
laurels of a hundred years; for she stipulated to 
abandon the interests of Charles II.; to cede the 
island of Palerone, in the East Indies, to England ; 
to pay eighty-five thousand pounds as an indem- 
nity for British losses ; to punish the murderers of 
British subjects at Amboyna ; and, hardest of all, 
while Yan Tromp, who had threatened to sweep the 
British flag from the sea with the broom fastened 
to the mast-head of his frigates, was hardly cold in 
his coffin, Holland yielded up the sovereignty of 
the ocean.* 

Europe looked on aghast ; and when the conti- 
nental sovereigns witnessed this humiliating treaty, 
wrung from the Dutch by the haughty fiat of the 
Lord Protector, they hastened to compliment his 
highness upon his advancement and to cultivate 
his friendship. The king of Portugal asked pardon 
for receiving prince Rupert in his ports ; the Danes 
got themselves included in the Dutch treaty ; the 
Swedes sued for an alliance, which was concluded 
with their ambassador ;f and the French ambassa- 
dor, who was received by Cromwell at Whitehall with 
all the state of a crowned head, having made his 
obeisance, and mentioned his royal master's desire 
to establish a correspondence between his domin- 

* Hume, Guizot, Godwin, Forster, DAubigne's Protectorate ; 
Harris, Life of Cromwell ; Neale, vol. 2, p. 369. 

f Vanghan's Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, Godwin, Forster. 



380 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



ions and England, proceeded to say, " The king 
my master communicates his resolutions to none 
with so much joy and cheerfulness as to those 
whose virtuous actions and extraordinary merits 
render them even more conspicuously famous than 
the largeness of their dominions. His majesty is 
sensible that all these advantages do wholly reside 
in your highness, and that the divine Providence, 
after so many calamities, could not deal more fa- 
vorably with these three nations, nor cause them 
to forget their past miseries with greater satisfac- 
tion, than by subjecting them to so just a govern- 
ment."" 

The flunkey crowned heads of Europe would 
have gone even further than they did had Cromwell 
expressed the wish, and ordered their savants to 
hunt up a jus divinum as a basis for the Protecto- 
rate, from some forgotten record of the past. 

Towards the Eomanist powers Cromwell as- 
sumed an attitude of complete and fearless liberty, 
unmarked by prejudice or ill-will, but equally de- 
void of courtship or flattery, showing himself dis- 
posed to maintain peace, but always leaving open 
the prospect of war, and watching over the inter- 
ests of his country and of Protestantism with stern 
and uncompromising haughtiness.t 

It was in 1654 that Cromwell's celebrated inter- 
vention for the Vaudois — 

' ' E'en them who kept God's truth so pure of old, 
"When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones " — 

« Neale, vol. 2, pp. 369, 370 \ Guizot, vol.2, pp. 78, 79. 



THE PROTECT OK ATE. 



381 



occurred. Trie duke of Savoy, spurred thereto by 
his duchess, by the pope, and by the Italian 
princes, undertook to massacre the feeble remnant 
of those hunted mediaeval reformers who had been 
driven out of France to the shelter of the Piedmont 
valleys.* Fearful cruelty was exercised, and the 
wail of the slaughtered saints echoed from the Al- 
pine mountains to Whitehall. Cromwell moved all 
Europe to intervene ; and when Mazarin, who had 
succeeded Kichelieu in the government of France, 
made excuses and hesitated, the iron Puritan thun- 
dered his war cry, and proposed to go personally 
to the rescue. So great was Cromwell's reputation 
that this was not necessary : the massacre ceased ; 
Savoy made amends ; the continental sovereigns 
poured contributions into Piedmont ; collections 
were taken up throughout the united kingdoms of 
Great Britain ; the Protector himself headed the 
subscription-list, and for once authority compelled 
an act of poetic justice. t 

" To strike further terror into the pope and the 
petty princes of Italy," says Neale, "the Protector 
gave out that, forasmuch as he was satisfied that 
they had been the promoters of the Yaudois per- 
secution, he would keep it in mind, and lay hold of 
the first opportunity to send his fleet into the Med- 
iterranean to visit Civita Vecchia and other ports 

* Hist, of Huguenots, Amer. Tr. Soc, 1866 ; Thurlow's State 
Papers. # 

| Milton, Prose Works, vol. 5, pp. 247-258 ; Vaughan's Crom- 
well, vol. 1, p. 158 ; Morland, Hist. Evang. Church in Piedmont. 



382 



HISTORY OF THE 



PURITANS. 



of the ecclesiastical territories, and that the sound 
of his cannon should be heard in Rome itself. He 
declared publicly that he would not suffer the Prot- 
estant faith to be insulted in any part of the world; 
this procured liberty to the reformed in Bohemia 
and France ; nor was there any potentate in Eu- 
rope so hardy as to risk his displeasure by denying 
his imperious requests."* 

One of the secrets of Cromwell's European in- 
fluence was, that it was known that his threats were 
not vox et prceterea nihil. If he talked high, he 
acted higher. + Some years after the Yaudois in- 
tervention, he did indeed dispatch a squadron of 
thirty ships, under that stern republican Admiral 
Blake — whose fame, like the Protector's, was now 
spread over Christendom — into the Mediterranean. 
"No English fleet," remarks Hume, "except during 
the crusades, had ever before sailed in those seas ; 
and from one extremity to the other there was no 
naval force, Christian or Mohammedan, able to re- 
sist them. The Roman pontiff, whose weakness and 
whose pride equally provoked attack, dreaded inva- 
sion from a power which he had fatally offended, 
and which so little regulated its movements by the 
usual motives of apparent interest and prudence. 
Blake, casting anchor before Leghorn, demanded 
and obtained reparation from the duke of Tuscany 
for some losses which English commerce had for- 
merly sustained from him. The fleet next sailed to 

O Neale, vol. 2, p. 406. 

f Guizot, Vaughan, LucUov/'s Memoirs. 



THE PEO TEC TOE ATE. 



383 



Algiers, and compelled the dey to make peace, and 
to restrain his piratical subjects from further vio- 
lence on the English. Blake next presented him- 
self before Tunis, and having made there the same 
demand, the dey told him to look to the castles of 
Porto Farino and Galetta, and do his utmost. The 
fiery admiral required no second bidding; and 
drawing up his ships close to the castles, tore them 
to pieces with his artillery. He sent a detachment 
of soldiers in their long-boats into the harbor, and 
burned every vessel that lay moored there. This 
bold action, whose very temerity perhaps rendered 
it safe, was executed with little loss, and it filled all 
Christendom with the renown of English valor,"* 
and with dread of the Protectorate. 

Such was the foreign record, in so far at least 
as it affects the Puritans, of England under Crom- 
well : bound by sincere friendship to all the Prot- 
estant states, in active alliance with the most pow- 
erful Komanist sovereigns — everywhere present, 
respected, influential, and feared.f 

Foreign visitors, accustomed to the soft, effemi- 
nate graces of the continental courts, could never 
quite comprehend the earnest sternness of the Pro- 
tector's government. "I am now in England," 
wrote the Yenetian ambassador Giovanni Sagredo, 
who had come to London from Paris in October, 
1656, and now sent back his impressions in the 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 396 ; Russell's Life of Cromwell, 
f Guizot, vol. 2, p. 244 ; T. Cromwell's Life and Times of 
Cromwell. 



384 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



peculiar style of his age and country ; " the aspect 
of this island is very different from that of France : 
here we do not see ladies going to court, but gen- 
tlemen courting the chase ; not elegant cavaliers, 
but cavalry and infantry ; instead of music and bal- 
lets, they have drums and trumpets ; they do not 
speak of love, but of Mars ; they have no comedies, 
but tragedies ; no patches on their faces, but guns 
on their shoulders ; they do not neglect sleep for 
the sake of amusement, but severe ministers keep 
their flocks in incessant watchfulness. In a word, 
every thing here is full of disdain, suspicion, and 
rough, menacing faces."* 

Probably the Italian diplomat missed his wont- 
ed revels and his love-sick haunts, and his chagrin 
bubbled over in epigrams. It may certainly be con- 
ceded that England, under the Protectorate, sober, 
earnest, devout, was scarcely calculated to be the 
beau ideal residence of a roystering and ribald cav- 
alier. 

Still the pictures of the Puritans of that age have 
been sadly distorted. They were not savage, fanatical 
iconoclasts, bent on the demolition of all that was 
beautiful in architecture and in letters. Parliament, 
in its act for the removal of popish badges, introduced 
an express clause for the preservation of works of 
art, and provided that their ordinance " should not 
extend to the mutilation of any image, picture, or 
coat of arms, in glass, stone, or otherwise, in any 

* Lettere Inedite di Messar Giovanni Sagredo, p. 29 ; Venice, 
1839. 



THE PEO TEC TOE ATE. 385 



church, chapel, or church-yard, set up or engraven 
for a monument of any king, prince, nobleman, or 
other dead person, not commonly reputed or taken 
for a saint."* And that this statute, even with its 
limitation, was never fully carried out, is obvious 
from the fact that multitudes of statues and other 
Romanist monuments still stand in towns and ham- 
lets where the Parliament had full sway.f 

" It is common," remarks Stoughton, " to rep- 
resent Puritanism as a grovelling spirit, which 
crushed the seeds of genius and literature. So far 
as genius was occupied in the investigation of re- 
ligious and political principles, and so far as litera- 
ture was employed in diffusing their results, it is 
very unfair to charge Puritanism with being the 
enemy of either. As it was seen in the doings of 
the leading men at Oxford, it appeared as the friend 
of both. It animated many of them to an intense 
study of divinity, with such an aj)plication of the 
aids of philology, criticism, the fathers, the school- 
men, and modern writers, as might well shame 
numbers of the theologians of later times. The 
works which some of the leading Puritans pro- 
duced under the Protectorate are monuments of 
their talents and attainments, as well as of their 
piety. Baxter, Owen, Hume, Charnock, and many 
more, for depth of thought, compass of intelligence, 
and occasional power and even felicity of expres- 
sion, will bear comparison with the most boasted 
names among the divines of any country. 

* Pari. Hist. ; Statutes of the Realm. f Stoughton, p. 194. 

Fnritms. 17 



386 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



" As a class, the Puritans can by no means be 
said to have cultivated the forms of poetry ; yet 
they were poets in spite of themselves. They 
scorned the tales of romance, but their imagina- 
tions were pictured over with the facts of Scrip- 
ture. They cared little for Olympus and the haunts 
of the muses, but they daily visited the hill of 
Zion, and talked with prophets and apostles. They 
frequented not the scenes of classic story, but they 
were familiar with scenes more exquisitely beauti- 
ful, more awfully sublime: Homer, Pindar, and 
Virgil perhaps they might not often study, but 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were poets whose 
rich and divine utterances were on their lips as 
household words. The theatre they abhorred; 
their condemnation of its impure accessories preju- 
diced them against the richest creations of the dra- 
matic muse, but they themselves trod an infinitely 
nobler stage, in the presence of ' & great cloud of 
witnesses.' They felt that they were a spectacle 
to the world and to angels. Others have written 
wonderful dramas ; they acted one more wonderful 
than was ever penned. They lived much in an- 
other world, and there they walked by faith in the 
highest realm of poetry. ' Truly their lives were a 
great epic' Nor did that soul of poetry which dwelt 
within them fail to express itself in their writings 
and conversation. There are multitudes of pas- 
sages in their books to which perhaps some critics 
would point as teeming with enthusiasm, which are 
in fact redolent with the genuine spirit of poetry ; 



THE PKOTECTOEATE. 



387 



and their ordinary speech, so often ridiculed, would 
sometimes glitter with scriptural allusions instinct 
with poetic fire. 

" As to the lower classes among the Puritans, 
they were, to say the least, as intelligent as their 
compeers on the other side. If they were ignorant 
of elegant literature, they knew something about 
the Bible, and w T ere well versed in the writings and 
sayings of popular divines — knowledge which, even 
in a literary point of view, it seems a desecration 
to compare with the loose songs and scraps of rib- 
ald wit which formed the staple of Cavalier learn- 
ing among the lower orders. 

"But after all, did Puritanism altogether lack 
sons who walked in the paths of polite literature ? 
Were not Harrington and Waller and Vane and 
Marvel Puritans and Commonwealthsmen ? Did 
they not meet with other wits and poets of the day 
in true literary conclave at the Turk's Head in Pal- 
ace-yard, to speculate on the profoundest themes, 
or playfully to chat together in conversation sea- 
soned with a salt as pungent as any Attic wit? 
And have they not written works of literary renown 
which all parties have since combined to praise? 
Was not Milton a Puritan? Does not his genius 
tower above all other men's since the days when 
Shakspeare wrote? For the solitary grandeur of 
his muse, and for all its wayward aberrations too, 
he may be likened to his own 

' 1 ' Wandering moon, 
Hiding near his highest noon, 



388 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



Like one that hath been led astray, 
Through the heaven's wide, pathless way.'"* 

The Puritans of the Protectorate then were no 
horde of vulgar fanatics, no herd of tasteless, 
gloomy ascetics — consumere fruges nati — born only 
to eat. No ; they had a work, and God graced 
thern with the talent and the culture as well • as 
with the dauntless courage necessary to its per- 
formance. 

In 1656, good Bishop Hall expired. u His prac- 
tical works," says Neale, "have been held in great 
esteem among dissenters. At the beginning of the 
troubles between the king and the Parliament, Dr. 
Hall published several treatises in favor of dioce- 
san Episcopacy, which were answered by Smec- 
tymnus and by Milton. He was afterwards impris- 
oned in the tower with the rest of the protesting 
bishops : upon his release he retired to Norwich ; 
the revenues of which bishopric being soon seques- 
tered, together with his own real and personal es- 
tate, he was forced to be content with the fifths. 
The parliamentary soldiers used him severely, turn- 
ing him out of his palace, and threatening to sell 
his books, which they would have done had not a 
friend given a bond for the money at which they 
were appraised. Dr. Hall complained very justly 
of this usage in a pamphlet, entitled, ' Hard Meas- 
ure.' At length Parliament made him some amends, 
voting him forty pounds a year ; and when the war 
was ended his estate was restored to him, and he 

* Stonghton, pp. 224-228. 



THE PEO TEC TOE ATE. 389 



lived peaceably ever after, spending his solitude in 
acts of charity and in divine meditation. He has 
been frequently called the English Seneca, for the 
pureness, plainness, and fulness of his style."* 

In September, 1657, Parliament, a "shrew" now 
"tamed" into Cromwell's peaceful help-meet, con- 
firmed the de facto government, and proffered the 
crown to the Lord Protector. t Although tendered 
in the most solemn manner, it was refused, some 
say because Cromwell's own stern republican recti- 
tude withheld him from the assumption of royalty ;$ 
others, because he feared that his acceptance would 
alienate the affection of the army, always demo- 
cratic in its principles, and bitterly opposed to the 
name of king.§ " Most historians," remarks Hume, 
" are inclined to blame the Protector's choice ; but 
he must be allowed to be the best judge of his own 
situation. And in such complicated subjects, the. 
alteration of a very minute circumstance, unknown 
to the spectator, will often be sufficient to cast the 
balance, and render a determination, which in itself 
may be ineligible, very prudent, or even absolutely 
necessary to the actor." || 

The last years of the Protectorate were as pros- 
perous and glorious as its opening months. The 
war with Spain was grandly successful. Blake 
blockaded the harbor of Cadiz, sunk the Spanish 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 417, 418. 

f Pari. Hist. ; Godwin, Hist. Commonwealth ; Guizot. 

% Forster, Carlyle, Headley. § Clarendon, Hume, etc. 

|| Hume, vol. 2, p. 403. 



390 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



fleet, and captured plate to the value of two million 
pounds, which was brought to London from Ports- 
mouth in carts, and coined in the tower.* "Winter- 
ing on the coast of Spain, Blake, in the summer of 
1657, repeated his exploit with still greater eclat.\ 
The island of Jamaica, in the West Indies, had been 
previously conquered,^ and the record of a glorious 
year was fitly rounded into perfect symmetry by the 
capture of Dunkirk by Cromwell's pikemen, assisted 
by the French battalions of Turenne.§ Mazarin 
intended to retain that strong-hold in his own hands, 
contrary to an existing treaty. Cromwell's spies 
acquainted him with the design, and sent him Maz- 
arin' s secret order to that effect. The French am- 
bassador was sent for; when he reached Whitehall, 
the Protector mentioned the intended breach of 
contract; the diplomat denied it; whereupon Crom- 
well took from his pocket the cardinal's private di- 
rections, and desired the astounded ambassador to 
let his eminence know that if the keys of Dunkirk 
were not delivered to his ambassador Lockhart 
within an hour after its capture, he would come in 
person and demand them at the gates of Paris. It 
is needless to add that Lockhart took possession 
within the hour.ll This conquest added fresh lustre 
to the Protector's administration, since it was no 
empty trophy, but gave the English a foothold on 

* Thurlow's State Papers ; Clarendon's Hist. Keb. ; Godwin. 

f Ibid. % Hume, vol. 2, p. 396. 

§ Hist, et Mem. du Vicomte de Turenne, vol. 2, pp. 360-375 ; 
Godwin; Clarendon; Mem. Historiques, vol. 1, p. 167, et seq., 
etc. || Godwin, Neale, Forster. 



THE PROTECT OB ATE. 391 

the Continent, and made them masters of both sides 
of the Channel. 

At about this same time Cromwell had an oppor- 
tunity of redressing the wrongs of the Huguenots, 
as he had already redressed those of the Yaudois 
Piedmontese. On being apprized of certain ultra- 
montane tumults at Nismes, which the court of Louis 
XIY. intended to make the pretext for a general 
onslaught upon the reformed, the Protector dis- 
patched an express to Mazarin vetoing the crusade ; 
and he at the same time instructed the English am- 
bassador to insist upon the cessation of all hostile 
movements, and in case his eminence did not com- 
ply, to demand his passports and to quit the court. 
Mazarin complained of this as high and imperious ; 
but so great was his awe of Cromwell, that he has- 
tened to stop the expedition, and to reestablish the 
entente cor dialed 

This intervention, like that for the Yaudois, was 
bruited throughout Christendom, and foreign Prot- 
estantism felt itself strengthened and vivified when 
sheltered beneath the august aegis of the Protecto- 
rate. In those days England dictated law to the 
whole Continent. Whitehall did not then stoop to 
to be the lackey of the Tuilleries. 

But the end approached. The Protector's health, 
broken by excessive toil and advancing age, began 
to fail. At length, on the 3d of September, 1658, 
the anniversary of his triumphs at Dunbar and at 
Worcester,t the cord of life snapped, and the Puri- 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 416. f Carlyle, Godwin, Forster. 



392 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



tan soldier and statesman, then in his sixtieth year, 
lay dead in his palace at "Whitehall.* 

His last words were a prayer, like himself, 
unique, unprecedented, sublime : " Lord, I am a 
poor, foolish creature : this people would fain have 
me live ; they think it best for them, and that it 
will redound much to thy glory ; and all the stir is 
about this. Others would fain have me die. Lord, 
pardon them, and pardon thy foolish people ; for- 
give their sins, and do not forsake them, but love 
and bless and give them rest, and bring them to a 
consistency ; and give me rest, for Jesus Christ's 
sake, to whom, with thee and thy Holy Spirit, be 
all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen."t 

* Carlyle, Godwin, Forster, Vaughan. 

f Neale, vol. 2, p. 438 ; Carlyle, Vaughan. 



JUDAS. 



393 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

JUDAS. 

The death of the Protector conjured up chaos. 
A smiling but treacherous calm of five months du- 
ration did indeed ensue. It took so long for'fcag- 
land to shake off the spell of Cromwell's genius. 
The Protector's son and heir, Richard Cromwell, 
was proclaimed. Congratulatory addresses greeted 
the new government; the Presbyterians, who had 
been hostile to the father, were friendly to the son ; 
and " all went merry as a marriage-bell." 

But Richard Cromwell resembled his father only 
in name. Weak, inefficient, retiring, the best that 
can be said of him is, that he was a gentleman, and 
that he could pass a chair or hand a dish with rare 
grace.* These are not the qualities which consti- 
tute a statesmanship skilled and able to hold the 
helm in boisterous times ; and the new Protectorate 
soon drifted on the rocks. 

Parliament, divided between secret royalists and 
open republicans, began a factious opposition to 
the continued existence of the abnormal situation.f 
The army, also split into two factions, Common- 
wealthsmen and Presbyterians, began to bicker and 
to chafe. The democrats, headed by a cabal of 

* Burnet's Own Times ; Neale, Whitelocke. 
f Hume, Burnet, Godwin. 

17* 



394 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



officers, dragooned the Protector into dissolving the 
Parliament, his main support.* A council of mili- 
tary men assumed authority. The feeble pigmy 
who masqueraded as Protector, perplexed and ter- 
rified, at once resigned his dignity, and after a reign 
of eight months, sank into congenial obscurity, t 

In the mean time Monk, who commanded in 
Scotland, began to move. The Puritan regiments 
in the north witnessed these revolutions with an 
indignation which resembled that of the Roman 
legions* posted on the Danube and the Euphrates, 
when they learned that the empire had been put 
up to sale by the praetorian guards. It was intol- 
erable that certain squadrons should, merely be- 
cause they chanced to be quartered at Westmin- 
ster, take on themselves to make and unmake sev- 
eral governments in six months. If it were fit that 
the state should be regulated by soldiers, then those 
soldiers who upheld the English ascendency on the 
north of the Tweed were as well entitled to a voice 
as those who garrisoned the Tower of London.^ 

Thus, while the army rose against the Parlia- 
ment, the different corps of the army rose against 
each other. Without a head, society itself dis- 
solved. The people everywhere refused to pay 
taxes. The title-deeds of the magistrates were 
questioned. Sect raved against sect ; party plot- 
ted against party.§ 

* Hume, Burnet, Godwin. 

f Burnet's Own Times, Vaughan, etc. 

J Macauley, Hist. Eng. ; Guizot, Clarendon. § Ibid. . 



JUDAS. 



395 



Monk advanced and entered London in 1659. 
A painful hush succeeded. He was felt to be the 
arbiter of the national fate. The republicans be- 
sought him to confirm the Commonwealth ; the roy- 
alists urged him to declare for the king ; the Pres- 
byterians, forming an alliance with the Cavaliers, 
cried Amen to this programme, but spoke of terms, 
and wished to secure the establishment of their dis- 
cipline in England, as the sine qua non of the return 
of the exiled Stuarts.* Neither of these parties 
dared initiate a movement in support of their plans. 
The dread of that invincible army was the spell 
which tied all hands ; and even though divided and 
betrayed, it was still irresistible. Monk's impor- 
tance grew out of the fact that he controlled so 
many disciplined regiments.t 

At last Monk acted ; the " Kump " Parliament 
was convened. "Those Presbyterian members of 
the House of Commons who had many years before 
been expelled by the army returned to their seats, 
and were hailed with acclamations by great multi- 
tudes who thronged Westminster Hall and Palace- 
yard. The Independent leaders no longer ventured 
to show their faces in the streets, and were scarcely 
safe in their own dwellings. Temporary provision 
was made for the government, writs were issued for 
a general election, and then that memorable Par- 
liament which had, during twenty years, experi- 
enced every variety of fortune, which had triumph- 

* Neale, vol. 2, chap. 4, passim ; Godwin, Baxter, 
f Clarendon, Burnet, etc. 



396 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



ed over its sovereign, which had been enslaved and 
degraded by its servants, which had been twice 
ejected and twice restored, solemnly decreed its 
own dissolution."* 

The army, without a leader, the sport of a doz- 
en restless and aspiring officers, looked on in sullen, 
ominous, but despairing discontent. The republi- 
cans made a last rally, and Milton issued a pamph- 
let, in which he pointed out the "ready and easy 
way to establish a commonwealth," and expressed 
the hope that what he said might not prove " the 
last words of expiring liberty."t 

These efforts were all vain. . The" people — some 
mad with love of change, some from self-interest, 
some from a longing for a stable government, some 
from disgust at the excesses of the past, and some 
from real attachment to the ancient monarchy — the 
people pronounced in favor of the restoration of the 
Constitution. " It is to be noted," remarks Macau- 
ley, " that the two great parties of the Roundheads 
and the Cavaliers had never been the whole nation ; 
nay, that th.ej had never, taken together, made up 
a majority of the nation. Between them had always 
been a great mass which had not steadfastly ad- 
hered to either, which had sometimes remained 
inertly neutral, and had sometimes oscillated to and 
fro. That mass had more than once passed, in a 
few years, from one extreme to the other and back 
again. Sometimes it changed sides merely because 

* Macauley, Hist. Eng., vol. 1, p. 115. 
t Milton, Prose Works, vol. G. 



JUDAS. 



397 



it was tired of supporting the same men, sometimes 
because it was dismayed by its own excesses, some- 
times because it had expected impossibilities, and 
had been disappointed. But whenever it had leaned 
with its whole weight in either direction, resistance 
had for the time been impossible."* 

The elections proved that one of these spas- 
modic social revolutions was now occurring. The 
new Parliament consisted of a coalition of Cavaliers 
and Presbyterians. The Lords once more reentered 
that hall from which they had been excluded through 
eleven years. f Then the two houses proceeded to 
invite Charles Stuart to stop hunting in the bogs of 
France, to cease skulking through the courts of 
Europe, to quit the arms of his continental mis- 
tresses sufficiently long to come to England and 
reascend the throne of his fathers.:]: 

The great quarrel which liberty has with this 
action and with Monk's approval of it is, that no 
guarantee was demanded, no terms were made, no 
limits were imposed on this roue sovereign who was 
invited to reign, at a time when all might have been 
and should have been exacted. A simple declara- 
tion, made at Breda, in Brabant, while he was yet 
a fugitive, in which Charles promised, among other 
things, " such liberty for tender consciences that no 
man should be called in question for religious opin- 
ions tvldch did not disturb the sfafe,"§ was the silly 
* Macauley, vol. 1, p. 73. 

f Since the inauguration of the Commonwealth, in 1649. 
{ Pari. Hist., Hume, Clarendon. 

§ Clarendon, vol. 3, p. 772 ; Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 702. 



398 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



bait which caught these gudgeons. The Presbyte- 
rians swallowed it whole, overlooking the last clause, 
which was a sufficient warrant for the suppression 
of Presbyterianism itself, on the plea that it was 
inimical to the government. They even expected 
that Charles would adopt their discipline as the 
national creed.* And so the Parliament, encour- 
aged by the Presbyterians and by the aid of Monk, 
the Judas of British politics, without casting one 
glance at the past or requiring one stipulation for 
the future, threw down the freedom of three king- 
doms at the feet of the most frivolous and heartless 
of tyrants. 

On the 26th of May, 1660, Charles II. landed at 
Dover. Three days later he rode in triumph through 
the jubilant metropolis to the palace of Whitehall. t 
Foolish England went mad with joy. At night the 
sky was reddened by countless bonfires; there was 
an incessant peal of bells ; the gutters ran with ale.J 

" Then came those days never to be recalled 
without a blush, the days of servitude without loy- 
alty, of sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents 
and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and 
narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the 
bigot, and the slave. The king cringed to his rival 
that he might trample on his people, sank into a 
viceroy of France, and pocketed with complacent 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 464-469 ; Baxter's Life and Times, 
f Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 702 ; Evelyn's Diary, vol. 2, p. 
148 ; Clarendon, Hume. 

$ Evelyn's Diary, Whitelocke's Memorials, Clarendon. 



JUDAS. 



399 



infamy her degrading insults and her more degrad- 
ing gold. The government had just ability enough 
to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. 
The principles of liberty were the scoff of every 
grinning courtier and the anathema maranatha of 
every fawning dean. In every high place worship 
was paid to Charles and J ames, Belial and Moloch ; 
and England propitiated those obscene and cruel 
idols with the blood of her best and bravest chil- 
dren. Crime succeeded to crime, disgrace to dis- 
grace, until the race, accursed of God and man, was 
a second time driven forth to wander on the face of 
the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of the 
head to the nations."* 

* Macauley, Essay on Milton. 



400 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

THE KESTOEATION. 

Under the Restoration, the theology, the man- 
ners, and the dialect of the Puritans became a scoff 
and a reproach, and the outcry was swollen by the 
voices of those " lewd fellows of the baser sort" who 
had been roughly repressed by the precisionists. 
To a certain extent the Puritans had brought upon 
themselves this storm of unpopularity. The people 
had been vexed by the interdiction of their favorite 
games, and fretted by a legal code which enforced 
the subversion of all the most popular amuse- 
ments. May-poles were hewn down; rope-dancing, 
puppet-shows, bowling, horse -racing, wrestling- 
matches, theatricals — every diversion, from masks 
in the manor-houses to grinning-matches on the 
village greens, was placed under a judicial ban.* 

The Puritans meant in this to subserve the 
interests of morality, but their indiscrimination 
balked them of success, and covered them with 
odium. Recreation is essential both to happiness 
and to health ; therefore it is eminently necessary 
to distinguish between proper and improper amuse- 
ments; and while we discountenance the one, we 

* Statutes of the Eealin ; Godwin, Hist, of Commonwealth ; 
Clarendon. 



THE RESTOBATION. 



401 



ought to encourage the other. The Puritans did 
not make this distinction. 

Then, again, the church as a church has no co- 
ercive authority. It may and it should use every 
moral weapon in its warfare against vice. It may 
and it should rest its lever upon every spiritual ful- 
crum in its effort to lift the world out of criminal 
sloughs. But when the church attempts to compel 
men to be moral by civil penalties, it quits its legit- 
imate domain and usurps the sword. Its members 
may, as citizens, bar out immorality and all incite- 
ments to vicious ways ; but in this, while the motor 
power is religion, the agency is statesmanship ; and 
Christians should achieve their purpose not through 
ecclesiastical, but through political forms. Un- 
doubtedly the state is armed with authority to sup- 
press vice ; for liberty is not license, and the social 
compact presupposes the existence of a reserved 
right to protect society against the insidious en- 
croachments of the abettors of immorality. The 
civil magistrate is under bonds to God and man to 
see that vice, that protean sapper of social order, 
is not left to flaunt unchecked. 

We do not plead therefore for the immunity of 
immorality; for immorality, whatever garb it may 
put on, is a crime entitled to no terms ; we simply 
deny the authority of the church as a church to 
wield a sword which legitimately belongs to the 
civil magistrate. 

Besides, while thus busied in correcting the 
public morals, not legitimately by exhortation and 



402 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



by practice, but by penal legislation, Puritanism 
suffered in its own. It lias been well said, that " the 
ordinary tendency of sects is to attain a high repu- 
tation for sanctity while they are oppressed, and to 
lose it in prosperity ; and the reason is obvious. It 
is seldom that a man enrolls himself in a proscribed 
body from any but conscientious motives. Such a 
body therefore is composed, with scarcely an ex- 
ception, of sincere persons. The most rigid disci- 
pline that can be enforced within a religious soci- 
ety, is a very feeble instrument of purification com- 
pared with a sharp persecution from without. We 
may be certain that very few persons, not seriously 
impressed by religious conviction, applied for bap- 
tism while Diocletian was vexing the church, or 
joined themselves to Protestant congregations at 
the risk of being burned by Bonner. But when a 
sect becomes powerful, when its favor is the road 
to riches and dignities, worldly and ambitious men 
crowd into it, talk its language, conform strictly to 
its ritual, mimic its peculiarities, and frequently go 
beyond its honest members in all the outward indi- 
cations of zeal. No discernment, no watchfulness 
on the part of ecclesiastical rulers can prevent the 
intrusion of such false brethren. The tares and the 
wheat must grow together. Soon the world sus- 
pects that the godly are not better than other men, 
and concludes that if not better, they must be 
worse. In no long time all those signs which were 
formerly regarded as the characteristics of a saint, 
are regarded as the characteristics of a knave." 



THE KESTOEATION. 



403 



So it was with Puritanism ; ambitious men, licen- 
tious men imitated the sober dress, straight hair, 
the speech interspersed with quaint texts, the aver- 
sion to comedies, which were the badges of the par- 
liamentarians ; and then, after their villany had 
helped to bring " the good old cause " to ruin, 
turned about and loaded it with abuse as a refuge 
of dissenting mountebanks. 

The injury which Puritanism thus suffered in 
its morale, together with the ultra-strictness of its 
regime, brought it into general contempt at the 
Restoration. Profane wits levelled their epigrams 
at it; Cavaliers cursed it in their drink; and the 
people, long compelled to an extreme of austerity 
by statute, now rushed to an extreme of license 
from choice. England became a haunt of baccha- 
nals. " Drab colored " Puritanism was succeeded 
by scarlet colored profligacy. Oxford was once 
more revolutionized. Its own partial historian 
makes this record : " The hope of the Restoration 
made the scholars talk loud, drink healths, and 
curse Meroz in the very streets ; insomuch that 
when the king came in, nay, when he was voted in, 
they were not only like men in a dream, but like 
men out of their wits — mad, stark, staring mad. 
To study was fanatical ; to be moderate was down- 
right rebellion."* Neale adds these touches to 
Wood's picture : " There was . a general licentious- 
ness of manners among the students ; the sermons 
of the younger divines were filled with encomiums. 
* Anth. Wood, Hist, and Antiquities of Oxford. 



404 HISTOEY OF THE PTJKITANS. 



upon the olclen rule, and with satire against the 
Puritans ; the evangelical doctrines — faith, charity, 
and practical religion- — were out of date."* 

In every respect " the times which followed the 
Restoration were the reverse of those that preceded 
it ; for the laws which had been enacted against 
vice for the last twenty years were declared null, 
the magistrates were changed, and men set no 
bounds to their licentiousness. The loyalty of 
loose and riotous Cavaliers consisted in drinking 
healths and railing at all who would not join in 
their revels. The king was at the head of these 
disorders ; he had given himself up to pleasure, 
and devoted his time to lewdness. His bishops 
and chaplains complained that he came from his 
mistresses' apartments to church, even on sacra- 
ment days. Two theatres were erected in the 
neighborhood of the court. The most lewd and 
obscene plays were enacted, and these Charles 
graced with his presence. The court became an 
incarnate revel, and nothing was seen but feasting, 
hard drinking, and amorous intrigues, which en- 
gendered the most atrocious vices. From the court 
the contagion spread like wild-fire among the peo- 
ple, insomuch that men threw off the very profes- 
sion of virtue and piety. Under color of drinking 
the king's health, all kinds of Cavalier debauchery 
revived ; and the appearance of religion which re- 
mained with some, furnished matter of ridicule to 
libertines and scoffers."t 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 543-554. f Ibid., p. 477. 



THE EESTOKATION. 



405 



The Puritans, out of date and covered with 
abuse, looked on these scenes grief-stricken. The 
Independents had little to hope. They had been 
Cromwell's peculiar friends. The Baptists were 
strongly republican ; they had opposed the Pro- 
tector's government at the outset, but gradually 
the great body of their churches made their sub- 
mission, and enjoyed the esteem and protection of 
the yeoman prince.* The most then that these 
sects ventured to petition for was toleration.t 

The Presbyterians had higher hopes. They had 
opposed Cromwell ; they had been most influential 
in restoring the Stuarts ; and their egregious cre- 
dulity led them to believe that the Establishment 
would be stretched to embrace them.J 

At the outset the court encouraged this belief. 
The Presbyterians were soothed and caressed ; sev- 
eral of their most eminent clergy were added to the 
list of the king's chaplains in ordinary, and Calamy 
and Baxter each preached once at court.§ 

The fact should seem to be that in the disputes 
which divided his Protestant subjects, the king's 
conscience was not at all interested, for his opin- 
ions then oscillated in a state of contented susjoense 
between infidelity and popery; he was an infidel 
when well, and a Bomanist when sick. Macauley 
paints this portrait of the monarch : " Charles pos- 

* Crosby's and Ivimey's Hist, of the Baptists, 
f Newell, Baxter, Clarendon, Neale. 
t Neale, vol. 2, pp. 475-486; Newell, p. 323. 
§ Ibid. ; Evelyn's Diary ; Whitelocke. 



406 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



sessed social habits, polite and engaging manners, 
and some talent for lively conversation; he was 
addicted beyond measure to sensual indulgence, 
fond of sauntering and of frivolous amusements, 
incapable of self-denial and of exertion, detested 
state business, was without faith in human virtue 
or human attachment, without desire of renown, 
and without sensibility to reproach. According to 
him every one was to be bought. But some people 
haggled more about their price than others ; and 
where this haggling was very obstinate and very 
skilful, it was called by some fine name. The chief 
trick by which clever men kept up the price of their 
abilities was called integrity. The chief trick by 
which handsome women kept up the price of their 
beauty was called modesty. The love of God, the 
love of country, the love of family, the love of 
friends, were phrases of the same sort, delicate and 
convenient synonyms for the love of self. But 
though the king's conscience was neutral in the 
quarrel between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, 
his prejudices and his tastes were by no means so. 
His favorite vices were precisely those to which the 
Puritans were least indulgent. He could not get. 
through a day without the help of diversions which 
the Non-conformists regarded as sinful. Besides, 
as a man eminently well bred, and keenly sensible 
of the ridiculous, he was moved to contemptuous 
mirth by the oddities of Puritanism."* Indeed he 
was accustomed to say, " Puritanism is a religion 

* Macauley, Hist, of England, vol. 1, pp. 133, 134. 



THE BESTOKATION. 



407 



unfit for a gentleman."* He was right; it was 
unfit for a gentleman of that day, for it was a relig- 
ion of the people. Still, Charles wished to lay 
asleep old controversies. He also desired to tol- 
erate that Eomish creed towards which he already 
leaned. This he could not hope to do unless he 
proclaimed a general toleration. To this purpose 
he now lent himself with a kind of lazy noncha- 
lance. 

The moderate Presbyterians of the school of 
Baxter were anxious to effect a compromise with 
the moderate Episcopalians of the school of Usher. 
The moderates of one party admitted that a bishop 
might lawfully be assisted by a council ; the mod- 
erates of the other acknowledged that each provin- 
cial assembly might lawfully have a permanent 
president, and that this officer might be styled a 
bishop. In Baxter's mind the desideratum was a 
revised liturgy which should not exclude extempo- 
raneous prayer, a baptismal service in which the 
sign of the cross was optional, a communion at 
which the faithful might sit, if their consciences 
forbade them to kneel. t 

These concessions would have permitted the 
formation of a scheme of comprehension, under 
which the Presbyterian clergy might retain their 
ministry and their livings in the Establishment 4 

The king, hating dissension, abhorring sober 

8 Evelyn's Diary ; Whitelocke. 

f Baxter, Life and Times ; Macauley, Clarendon. 

X Newell, p. 323 ; Neale ; Burnet's Own Times. 



408 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



things, anxious always to escape from the cares of 
state to the sensuality of the seraglio, favored this 
programme, since he thought it made for peace. 
He gave its originators an audience. Baxter was 
the spokesman of his party ; and that great divine 
painted a glowing picture of the advantages certain 
to accrue to his majesty, to the state, to the church, 
from such a union. Charles listened with exquisite 
urbanity, nodded approval at the close of every sen- 
tence, requested the Presbyterians to draw up their 
proposals, dismissed the delegation with a gracious 
smile," and when they were gone, sighed wearily 
and wondered whether that stupid conference had 
not kept him too late for his appointment with Nell 
Gwynne. 

Baxter and his confreres withdrew from the 
royal ante-chamber only to assemble again at Zion 
college, where they were reinforced by as many of 
their coreligionists as they could collect. Here, 
after a weighty and prolonged debate, a paper 
framed on Archbishop Usher's model of church 
government was adopted. t With this the Presby- 
terians returned to court, where they expected to 
meet the bishops and hold a conference in which a 
definitive settlement should be arranged. What 
was their disappointment when they found that the 
churchmen had declined a conference, and empow- 
ered the lord-chancellor, who met them, to hand 

* Newell, p. 323 ; Burnet's Own Times ; Neale, vol. 2, pp.' 
480, 481. 

f Burnet's Own Times ; Reliquiae Baxterianae, pt. 2, p. 259. 



THE EE ST OE AT ION. 



409 



thein an elaborate paper of objections to the scheme 
of union.* 

The fact should seem to be, that " the great body 
of old Cavaliers listened to this talk of compromise 
with no patience. The religious members of that 
party were conscientiously attached to the whole 
system of their church. She had been dear to their 
murdered king. She had consoled them in defeat 
and penury. Her service, so often whispered in an 
inner chamber during the season of trial, had such 
a charm for them that they were unwilling to part 
with a single response. Other royalists, who made 
little pretence to piety, yet loved the English ritual 
because it was the foe of their foes. They valued 
a prayer or a ceremony not on account of the com- 
fort it conveyed to themselves, but on account of 
the vexation which it gave the Roundheads ; and 
were so far from being disposed to make conces- 
sions, that they objected to concessions chiefly be- 
cause they tended to produce union."f 

Thus, from one cause or another, the severities 
of former years began to be revived. Old laws 
were put into execution against those who did not 
use the Liturgy. Clergymen who had been se- 
questered under the Long Parliament, under the 
Commonwealth, under the Protectorate, flocked to 
court, and obtained a royal order for their rein- 
statement in their former livings.']: 

e Burnet's Own Times ; Keliquice Baxterianae, lib. 1. 

f Macauley, Hist, of Eng., vol. 1, p. 125. 

J Neale, vol. 2, pp. 474, 482 ; Burnet, Evelyn's Diary, Whitelockc. 

Puritans. 18 



410 HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



The leading Presbyterians at once waited upon 
the king. They did not deny that those preachers 
who had just lost their livings as a punishment for 
malignancy and old disaffection, were righteously 
ousted ; but they prayed that those who were 
friendly to the Restoration, and who had succeeded 
clergymen ejected for scandal, might retain their 
benefices.* 

Charles was, as usual, complaisant. He said, 
" I will endeavor to give you all satisfaction, and to 
make you as happy as myself." t In October, 1660, 
he published a pronunciamento, in which the exist- 
ing mixed ecclesiastical establishment was ordered 
to be maintained until the convention of a united 
assembly of Presbyterian and Episcopalian divines. 
This assembly was to meet five months later at the 
lodgings of the bishop of London, at the Savoy, and 
its settlement was to be definitive.^ 

Meantime, under the declaration, Reynolds ac- 
cepted a bishopric ; Baxter was offered one, but 
declined for reasons other than ecclesiastical ;§ and 
Calamy was pressed to accept the see of Litchfield, 
but this he refused to take until the declaration 
should be enacted into law.fl 

Soon the declaration was presented to Parlia- 
ment for their sanction. The bill passed one read- 
ing, but court intrigue defeated it on a second.^ 

* Newell, p. 327 ; Neale, vol. 2, pp. 474, 482. f Ibid. 

X Burnet's Own Times, Whitelocke, Baxter's Life and Times. 

§ Baxter's Life and Times, Neale. 

|| Neale, vol. 2, p. 483 ; Newell. 

1T Hume, Macauley, Neale, Newell, Baxter, etc. 



THE EESTOKATION. 



411 



This at once opened the eyes of the self-cozened 
Presbyterians, and they began to prepare for per- 
secution.^" 

But while this stir was afoot among the ecclesi- 
astics, the politicians were busy. At the head of 
the new ministry, Hyde, Lord Clarendon, was 
placed. He was a man of fine talent, but rusty in 
politics from long exile, and prejudiced in religion 
by misfortune. The first political- move of the Res- 
toration was to pass an act of indemnity ; this bur- 
ied past offences in oblivion, and excepted from its 
grace only such criminals as should be designated 
by Parliament. f 

This act has been smothered beneath the pane- 
gyrics of six generations of admiring critics ; but 
when it is remembered that Charles came back to 
England by no prowess of his own, but on the free 
invitation of a forgiving people, the fact that he did 
not instantly assume the port of a successful con- 
queror and breathe forth fire and slaughter loses 
much of its attributed lustre. Had the Stuarts 
returned by conquest, violence and bloody reprisal 
might have been in place. But we apprehend that, 
sitting enthroned as the guest of the nation, the 
king's action was, from the very outset, sufficiently 
high and arbitrary. 

The indemnity act was far from being pure rose- 
water. Parliament excepted all the regicides by 
name ; it attainted Cromwell, Ireton, Braclshaw, 
and others who then slept in the coffin ; it excepted 

* Neale, Newell. t Hume, vol. 2, p. 432. 



412 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



Lambert and Vane, though neither of these had 
any hand in the execution of the king, and though 
Vane had never countenanced the Protectorate, but 
had lived in peaceable retirement since the down- 
fall of the Commonwealth ; it denied its benefits to 
St. John and seventeen others, should they attempt 
to hold any office ; and it disabled all who had sat 
in an illegal court from ever accepting any public 
employment — banning thereby the whole judicial 
bench.* 

Most of those who, either from prominent con- 
nection with the recent regime or from republican 
principles, were peculiarly obnoxious to the resus- 
citated royalty, had secreted themselves when the 
clouds began to gather. Three of the regicides 
had quitted England for America. t Richard Crom- 
well had passed beyond the sea4 Milton, old, blind, 
and infirm, but still serene with the patience of a 
great soul, had sought an asylum with a friend, 
where he still continued 

"To sing and build the lofty rhyme. "§ 

But all who could be found were seized. Even the 
grave was rifled. The bodies of Cromwell, Brad- 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 432. Mr. Hume thinks these severities 
very mild, considering that they followed such furious civil wars 
and convulsions ; a conclusion from which we dissent for reasons 
recited in the text. 

f Bancroft, Hist., vol. 1 ; Wilson, Pilgrim Fathers, etc. 

% Burnet's Own Times. Kichard Cromwell died at Theobalds, 
in 1712 ; Neale. 

§ Life and Times of John Milton, Arner. Tract Society, 1866 ; 
Todd's Life ; Ivimey. 



THE RESTOKATION. 413 

shaw, and Ireton were dug up ; and with a malice 
as pitiful as it was blasphemous, these were drawn 
on hurdles to Tyburn gallows, where they hung 
from sunrise to sunset ; then they were huddled 
into one hole at the foot of the scaffold :* Blake, 
who had carried the thunders of the British cannon 
" from Ganges to the icebergs," and enthroned the 
navy mistress of the seas, was disturbed in his last 
sleep ;f and the body of Mrs. Claypole, the Protec- 
tor's daughter, was likewise insulted in the grave. :[ 
Lambert was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment 
at the isle of Jersey. Ten of the regicides suffered 
death with Christian firmness. § The political 
pamphlets of Milton were called in by proclama- 
tion, and burned by the common hangman. || A 
little later, Sir Harry Yane, whom the king had 
promised on his honor to pardon, was sacrificed to 
the ghost of the earl of Strafford. 1 He sleeps 

"In peace, with kindred ashes 
Of the noble and the true ; 
Hands that never failed their country, 
Hearts that never baseness knew." 

Now the papists, emboldened by the patronage 
of the king, began to creep from their corners ; and 

% King James' Memoirs ; Kennet's Eegister ; Pari. Hist, 
f Ibid. X Headley's Cromwell ; Carlyle, etc. 

§ State Trials, Hume, Keale. 
|| Neale, vol. 2, p. 488 ; Milton's Lives. 

IT Neale, vol. 2, p. 514. Vane would not petition for his life, 
but said, "If the king has no greater regard for his word than for 
my life, he can take it." He died with serene composure. At the 
scaffold he was not allowed to speak ; on which he said, "'Tis a 
sorry cause which cannot bear the words of a dying man." Neale. 



414 HISTOKY OF THE* PURITANS. 



with the craft and patience peculiar to their system, 
they gradually wormed themselves into the confi- 
dence of the government, wriggled into office, and 
eventually made converts of the duke of York and 
of Charles himself.* 

Through all these changes there was no disturb- 
ance ; England, sick of war, seemed willing to con- 
sent to any thing for the sake of peace. The only 
thing that looked like an emeute was a crazy foray 
of two or three score fifth-monarchy men, who 
avowed their determination to upset the Restora- 
tion in favor of king Jesus.t This was of course 
easily suppressed, and the storm exploded in a laugh. 

Nevertheless this mad raid of forty heated fa- 
natics was made a pretext for an invasion of the 
recent royal declaration of indulgence, and an order 
of council forbade the assembly of the sectaries 
except at stated seasons and at specified places.J 
The Independents, the Baptists, and the Quakers 
petitioned the king against this mandate, and as- 
serted their desire to live quietly and acquiescently 
under the Restoration. But the prayer of these 
despised sects went in at one ear and out at the 
other of the scoffing monarch. 

In 1661, renewed revelry and debauchery were 
occasioned by the king's marriage with the Infanta 
of Portugal. " This match," says Neale, "was pro- 

« Burnet's Own Times ; Hallam, Cons. Hist, ; King James' 
Memoirs ; Harris, Life of Charles II. 

f Hurae, vol. 2 ; Neale, vol. 2, p. 490, etc. 

X Crosby's and Ivimey's Hist, of the Baptists ; Neale, Burnet, 
Harris. 



THE EESTOEATION. 



415 



motecl by Monk and Clarendon. It was reckoned 
very strange that a Protestant chancellor should 
advise the king to marry a papist princess, when a 
Romanist king proposed at the same time a Prot- 
estant consort. But Clarendon had further views, 
for it was the general gossip among the merchants 
that the Infanta could have no children ; in which 
case the chancellor's daughter, who had been pri- 
vately married to the king's brother, must succeed, 
and her issue by the duke of York, afterwards James 
II., would become heirs to the throne, which actu- 
ally happened in the persons of queen Mary II. and 
queen Anne."* 

But while these intrigues were provoking com- 
ment at court and on 'change, the " Convention par- 
liament," as it was called, because it had met with- 
out the sanction of the royal writs, was dissolved. 
Its members had been elected before the Restora- 
.tion, and while the Presbyterians were dominant; 
consequently it had been a check on the exuber- 
ant loyalty of the Cavaliers, and it had long ceased 
to reflect public opinion. t 

Early in 1661 a new election was held, and the 
most zealous and fiery Cavaliers were returned to 
the House of Commons ; indeed it has been justly 
said that they were more zealous for royalty than 
the king, and more zealous for Episcopacy than the 
bishops. With the action of this parliament we 
shall presently become acquainted. 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 493. 

f Burnet's Own Times ; Harris, Charles II. ; Hume, Hist. Eng. 



416 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 

"BLACK ST. BAKTHOLOMEW." 

On the 25th of March, 1661, the famous Confer- 
ence was commenced at the Savoy. Each party was 
represented by twenty-one disputants: and the pro- 
fessed object was, to advise upon and review the 
Book of Common Prayer, for the purpose of giving 
satisfaction to tender consciences, and to maintain 
the unity of the church.* 

A prolonged and able debate ensued. The Epis- 
copal cause was defended by Gunning, a man of 
large reading and a subtle reasoner. The Presby- 
terian argument was pleaded by Baxter. t " Things 
were carried on at the Savoy with great sharpness 
and many reflections," remarks Burnet. " The Con- 
ference broke up without doing any good. It did 
rather hurt, and heightened the asperity that was 
then in people's minds to such a degree that it 
needed no addition to make it higher. The bish- 
ops insisted on the laws as they were still in force. 
The Presbyterians laid their complaints before the 
king ; but little regard was had to them. And now 
all the concern that seemed to employ the prelates' 
thoughts was, not only to make no alteration in 
easement of the Liturgy, but to make the terms of 

* Reliquiae Baxterianse, part 2 ; Neale, Newell, Burnet. 
f Baxter's Life and Times. 



"BLACK ST. BARTHOLOMEW." 417 

conformity much stricter than they had been before 
the war."* 

Fresh from the sanction of the bishops at the 
Savoy, the Liturgy was dispatched to the Convoca- 
tion then in session with the Parliament, and the 
Episcopal divines were directed in their turn to 
review it, and to make such additions and amend- 
ments as they thought proper. "Some lesser al- 
terations were made," says Burnet; "they took in 
more lessons out of the Apocrypha, in particular 
the story of Bel and the Dragon ; new offices were 
also made for two new days, the 30th of January, 
called King Charles the Martyr, and the 29th of 
May, the day of the king's birth and return ; but 
care was taken that nothing should be changed as 
it had been moved by the Presbyterians. "t 

When this was done, the Convocation returned 
the Prayer-book to the king, who immediately sent 
it to the Parliament.^ 

The Commons had commenced their session by 
voting that each member should, on pain of expul- 
sion, take the sacrament as prescribed by the old 
Liturgy, and that the Covenant should be burned 
by the hangman in the Palace-yard. Next an act 
was passed which declared that in no imaginable 
extremity could the two houses be justified in resist- 
ing the royal authority by force. A statute was 
framed which compelled every corporation officer 
to take an oath to the same effect. The bishops 

* Burnet's Own Times, p. 124. f Ibid., p. 125. 

X Baxter, Hume, Neale, Burnet. 

18* 

/ 



418 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



were restored to tlieir seats in the upper house. And 
now, on the receipt of the revised Prayer-book, a 
biting Act of Uniformity was passed, which for the 
first time made Episcopal ordination an indispensa- 
ble qualification for church preferment. St. Bar- 
tholomew's day, August 24, 1662, was fixed as the 
date when the new law should be put into execu- 
tion.* 

At length the blow had fallen. Non-conformity, 
sad and worn, had done its utmost, and made a gal- 
lant fight ; but it now met its Waterloo. 

The authorities did not wait for the time ap- 
pointed to arrive before commencing their cam- 
paign, though no overt act was yet committed. 
The doctrine of passive obedience was once more 
preached.f The most inveterate high-churchmen 
were preferred to bishopries.'^ The sequestered 
revenues were again collected.! Clergymen, be- 
wildered and ofttimes crazed by the return of pros- 
perous days, employed themselves, like Milton's 
mammon, in piling up gold, careless of judgment, 
righteousness, and the world to come, if only they 
might make the heap high and massy. " What the 
bishops did with their great fines" — these are Bur- 
net's words — " was a pattern to the lesser dignita- 
ries, who generally took more care of themselves 
than of the church. The men of service were load- 
ed with many livings and dignities. With this ac- 



* Macauley, Hume, etc. 

f Neale, vol. 2, p. 484 ; Burnet, Hallam, Macauley. 

$ Ibid. § Ibid. 



"BLACK ST. BABTHOLOMEW." 419 



cession of wealth there broke in upon the Establish- 
ment a flood of luxury and high-living on pretence 
of hospitality; and with this overset of gold and 
pomp which came upon men in the decline of life, 
those who were now growing into old age became 
lazy, and negligent in spiritual interests."* 

In this interim the church of Scotland was rev- 
olutionized. Episcopacy was established on the 
north side of the Tweed ; and a few months later 
Ireland also accepted the English Establishment. t 

At length black St. Bartholomew arrived. " The 
Presbyterians remembered what a St. Bartholomew's 
had been at Paris ninety years before," and they 
compared the days. This formula was tendered to 
every rector, lecturer, and clerk in the island : Be- 
ordination, if not already episcopally ordained ; a 
declaration of unfeigned assent to all and every 
thing prescribed and contained in the ritual of the 
Established church; the oath of canonical obedi- 
ence ; the abjuration of the League and Covenant ; 
the abjuration of the lawfulness of taking arms 
against the king, or any one commissioned by him, 
on any, the most weighty, pretence. $ 

To these terms of conformity, severer than those 
prescribed by Laud himself, no Puritan could sub- 
scribe. The result was, ejectment. Two thousand 
clergymen, on this one black day, were expelled from 
their livings, and reduced to beggary. "No pro- 
vision," observes Burnet, " was made for the niain- 

* Burnet's Own Times. f Ibid., Hume, Clarendon, etc. 
% Statutes of the Eealm, Pari. Hist., Neale, Hume. 



420 HISTOBY OF THE PUKITANS. 



tenance of the sequestered preachers ; a severity 
neither practised bj Elizabeth when she enacted 
her Liturgy, nor by Cromwell in ejecting the royal- 
ists, in both which cases a fifth part of the bene- 
fice was reserved for their subsistence. Here were 
many men much valued, some on better grounds 
and some on worse, who were now cast out of the 
Establishment ignominiously, reduced to pinching 
poverty, provoked by much spiteful usage, and cast 
upon those popular practices which both their prin- 
ciples and their circumstances seemed to justify, of 
forming separate congregations, and of diverting- 
men from the public worship, and from consider- 
ing their successors as the lawful pastors of those 
churches in which they had served."* 

The pecuniary bight came here : the payment of 
each year's tithes fell due on Michaelmas ; St. Bar- 
tholomew's day came before it, and all Non-con- 
formists would lose a twelve-months' income, which 
to these poor husbands and fathers was absolute 
ruin.f Still a beggared purse was better than an 
undone conscience ; and these spiritual heroes ac- 
cepted their fate as serenely as they could had they 
been bidden to a feast. Some of the parishioners 
of these clergymen could not understand their scru- 
ples. " Ah," said one countryman to the vicar of 
Ormskirk, as that pastor stood in the door-yard of 

* Burnet's Own Times, p. 126. 

f Ibid. Stoughton, Neale, Newell. Burnet states that the 
Commons fixed on St. Bartholomew's day for that very purpose, 
p. 126. 



"BLACK ST. BARTHOLOMEW." 421 



his tranquil home — his no longer — and gazed with 
a heavy but patient heart at the dear, familiar land- 
scape, "Ah, sir, we would gladly have you still 
preach in our church." " Yes," was the reply, " I 
would as gladly preach as you can desire it, if I 
could do it with a safe conscience." " Oh," retort- 
ed the man, "many nowadays make a great gash 
in their consciences ; can't you make a little nick in 
yours?"- 

But they could not ; and such self-sacrificing 
heroism was more eloquent than their sermons ; it 
was an afflatus of the Spirit of that gentle J esus who 
whispered from the accursed tree, " Father, forgive 
them ; for they know not what they do," 

Thus closed " black St. Bartholomew ;" and the 
day is linked for ever in English history with a pa- 
thos which is near akin to its bloody interest in the 
annals of mediaeval France. In one country it was 
a holocaust of corpses ; in the other it was a mas- 
sacre of stricken souls. 

"Good Heaven, what sorrows gloomed that parting day, 
That called them from their native walks away ; 
When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, 
Hung round their bowers, and fondly looked their last. 
"With loudest plaints the mother spoke her woes, 
And blessed the cot where every pleasure rose, 
And kissed her thoughtless babes with many a tear, 
And clasped them close, in sorrow doubly dear, 
While her fond husband strove to lend relief, 
In all the silent manliness of grief. " 

The spirit of the Bartholomew act was that of 
haughty and vindictive retaliation, beneath the dig- 

* Stoughton, Spiritual Heroes of Puritan Times, p. 291. 



422 HISTOEY OE THE PUBITANS. 



nity of statesmen, and unworthy of the character of 
Christians. The Puritans, and especially the Pres- 
byterians, had, in the day of their power, undoubt- 
edly given cruel provocation. They ought to have 
learned, if from nothing else, yet from their own 
discontents, from their own struggles, from their 
own victory, from the fall of that proud hierarchy 
by which they had been so heavily oppressed, that 
in England, and in the seventeenth century, it was 
not in the power of the civil magistrate to drill the 
minds of men into conformity with any prescribed 
discipline.* Some of the Puritan sects did learn 
and practise, this lesson ; but even so fine a charac- 
ter as Baxter plainly told king Charles, after the 
Restoration, that he did not believe in the tolera- 
tion of Papists and Socinians.t 

Still this does not excuse the Act of Uniformity. 
"T must own," says Fuller, " that in my judgment, 
however both sides have been excessively to blame, 
yet that the severities used by the church towards 
the dissenters are less excusable than those used by 
the dissenters towards the church. My reason is, 
that the former were used in time of peace and a 
settled government, whereas the latter were inflicted 
in times of tumult and confusion ; so that the plun- 
derings and ravagings endured by the churchmen 
were owing, many of them at least, to the rude- 
ness of soldiers and the chances of war ; they were 
plundered, not because they were conformists, but 
Cavaliers ; but no mercy was shown these un- 
* Newell, Macauley. f Neale, vol. 2, p. 476. 



* 'BLACK ST. BAKTHOLOMEW." 423 



na PPy sufferers, though it was impossible- on a 
sudden to fill up the gap that was made by their 
removal."* 

One of the worst features of this act was, that it 
gagged preachers of that same Protestant faith 
which its framers professed, and drove from the 
pulpits, which could not then be adequately filled, 
men who had been faithful to their consciences ; 
nay, it harassed them with cruel persecution if they 
lifted up their voices for the instruction and conso- 
lation of the bereaved and insulted people on whose 
free-will offerings they were thrown.f 

At this very time the author of " The Five Groans 
of the Church," a very strict conformist, complained 
that above three thousand ministers were admitted 
into the church who were unfit to teach because of 
their youth ; that fifteen hundred debauched men 
were ordained ; that illiterate men were preferred 
to benefices; and that out of about twelve thousand 
livings, three thousand were impropriate, that is, 
granted to laymen ; and four thousand one hundred 
and sixty-five w T ere sinecures. % 

Bad as it was, the Act of Conformity did not 
stand alone, an isolated monument of folly and 
wicked tyranny. In 1663 it was reinforced by the 
Conventicle Act, which condemned all persons fre- 
quenting " any meetiugs under color or pretence of 
any exercise of religion other than is allowed by the 
Liturgy of the church of England" to heavy fine for 

* Fullers Worthies. f Newell, p. 333. 

% Cited in Neale, vol. 2, pp. 520, 521. 



424: HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



the first offence, to fine and imprisonment for the 
second offence, to banishment to the American 
plantations — other than New England and Vir- 
ginia, where they would find coreligionists — for the 
third offence.* At the same time, all persons re- 
fusing peremptorily to attend the Established church 
were condemned to banishment ; and on return, to 
death without benefit of clergy f — statutes which, for 
cold-blooded malignity, surpass the code of Draco. 
The Act of Uniformity was to this as " Hyperion to 
a satyr." That expelled men from the benefices of 
the church ; this ejected them from the privileges 
of society. Half the kingdom was outlawed. A 
reign of terror was inaugurated, rivalling that 
which, in a later age, frenzied the Parisian popu- 
lace. Spies lurked in every corner ; informers leered 
from behind every blind. Men guilty only of loving 
their Creator were torn from their families, impris- 
oned, ruined by fines, tortured in the pillory, ban- 
ished from their homes, or hanged upon the gal- 
lows. To attend a conventicle became a damning 
crime, and it required the cleverest precaution. 
The catacomb days of English Christianity were 
revived. The Puritans met in dark alleys, in upper 
garrets, or in the woods at midnight. In some sea- 
sons the forests were a favorite sanctuary ; and 
" beneath the shades of lofty pines or overhanging 
elms, or round the gnarled trunks of oaks that had 
stood for ages, forming temples of God's own build- 

* Statutes of the Kealm ; Pari. Hist. 

t Ibid. ; Neale, vol. 2, pp. 531, 532 ; Hallam, 



"BLACK ST. BAETHOLOMEW. " 425 



ing, tlie hunted and peeled brotherhood assembled 
to hear the word of God."* 

At other times, when the eye of human observa- 
tion was sealed by sleep, they would steal into an 
upper chamber ; and having entered, they would 
make fast the door, and close the window-shutters, 
and even extinguish the candle, lest its glimmer 
might be discerned by some prowler through a 
crevice. Then the night would be spent in prayer, 
until the ray of morning light, struggling down the 
chimney, announced the time to disperse. Thus 
men learned that darkness hideth not from God, 
but the night shineth as the day ; and that " the Fa- 
ther, who seeth in secret, shall reward us openly."t 

Often, however, all precautions proved futile : the 
jails were soon crowded ; families were divided and 
distracted ; yet no breach of the peace occurred. 

" I saw several of these poor people," writes Pe- 
pys, a high-churchman whose heart was touched 
by these scenes, in his diary, under the year 1664, 
" carried by constables for being at a conventicle. 
They go like lambs, without any resistance ; and 
would to God they would either conform or be 
more wise, and not be catched."J 

" Fiat justitia, ruat ccelum" said an enthusiastic 
Presbyterian royalist, when conversing with an In- 
dependent friend in regard to bringing in Charles 
II. " Rait cmlum" remarked this friend on meet- 

* Stoughton, id. 303. 

f Pearsall's Outlines of Congregationalism, etc., p. 94. 
% Cited in Stoughton, p. 304. 



425 



HISTOKY OF THE PURITANS. 



ing liim after the passage of the Uniformity and 
Conventicle acts.* 

The king at this time claimed a dispensing power, 
which enabled him to suspend at his pleasure all 
these harsh penal codes.t This was never exerted 
for the benefit of the Puritans ; but by this shallow 
trick the Papists were often eased ; and now in 
these fierce times they had the good fortune to be 
covered under the wing of the prerogative. J 

Some of the old Cavaliers had some compunctions 
of conscience when they beheld such wide-spread 
consternation and distress. But in this weakness 
Clarendon and Sheldon, the twin authors of the 
persecution^ did not share. When the earl of Man- 
Chester told the king that the terms of conformity 
were so strict that he feared many of the ministers 
could not comply, Bishop Sheldon made this reply : 
"I have been afraid they would; but now that we 
know their real minds, we will post them all as 
knaves if they do conform." "Yet after all," said 
Dr. Allen, " 't is a pity the door is so strait." " 'T is 
no pity at all," responded the proud churchman ; 
" if we had imagined that so many would conform 
as have done so, we would have made it straiter ; 
these sects must be crushed. "|| 

This shows the animus of the court. Listen now 
to the wise words of Locke, in his " Third Letter on 

* Palmer's Non-conformist Memorial, vol. 2, p. 432. 

f Neale, vol. 2, p. 528. 

% Ibid., p. 532 ; Hume, Macauley. 

§ Burnet's Own Times, p. 126. 

H Cited in Newell, p. 331. 



"BLACK ST. BAETHOLOMEW. 



427 



Toleration :" " They who talk so much of sects and 
divisions, would do well to consider whether those 
are not most authors and promoters of sects and 
divisions who impose creeds, ceremonies, and arti- 
cles of men's making, and make things not neces- 
sary to salvation the necessary terms of salvation ; 
who narrow Christianity within bounds of their own 
making ; and often, for things by themselves con- 
fessed indifferent, thrust men out of their commun- 
ion, and then punish them for not being in it."* 

We commend this page from Locke to the 
thoughtful consideration of the Sheldons of our 
century. 

It has been well said, that this whole chapter of 
circumstances is disgraceful to all parties excepting 
the sufferers. The king was convicted of dissimu- 
lation, the leaders of the church of treacherous 
cruelty, and the Parliament of grossly neglecting, 
in the heat of their passionate loyalty, that justice 
which was due to every subject of the realm, and 
those grand principles of liberty which are at once 
the ornament and the safeguard of nations. These 
abhorrent statutes, instead of promoting unity and 
cementing peace, multiplied the divisions of the 
conscientious, and gave a bribe to discord. 

e Locke's Letter to a Person of Quality. 



428 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

THE HEEOES OF THE EXODUS. 

It is a high speech of Sir Philip Sidney, that 
" the great, in affliction, bear a countenance more 
princely than they are wont; for it is the temper of 
the highest hearts, like the palm-tree, to strive most 
upwards when most burdened." Discrowned Puri- 
tanism, now buried in the " valley of humiliation," 
is at once a vindication and an illustration of this 
apothegm. Yet the voice of its apostles was 

' Unchanged 

To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, 
On evil days thongh fallen, and evil tongues ; 
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, 
And solitude." 

They did not murmur, nor did they covet the 
"pleasant places" in which the "lines" of their 
persecutors had fallen. "An English merchant 
that then lived in Dantzic," says old Eirmin, "once 
went to a convent and dined with some friars : his 
entertainment was very noble. After he had dined 
and saw all, the merchant fell to commending their 
pleasant lives. ' Yes,' said one of the friars, ' we 
live gallantly indeed, had we anybody to go to hell 
for us when we die !' "* Men who are sure of "the 
'all hail' hereafter," may calmly pocket the affronts 
and the privations of the scornful present. 

* Firmin, The Keal Christian, p. 63 ; London, 1670. 



HEEOES OF THE EXODUS. 429 



Let us now quit for a moment the highway of 
our history, and wandering in the by-paths of the 
story, reverently gather up a few of those anecdotal 
and biographical incidents which vivify and indi- 
vidualize the exodus of 1662. 

One of the central figures of that epoch was 
Richard Baxter. Born in 1615, his life covers the 
larger part of the seventeenth century.* Though 
always resting under broken health, his life was an 
active apostleship, and he lived to see his seventy- 
seventh year.f Baxter was the argumentative and 
speculative representative of Puritanism. One of 
the most voluminous writers of any age,J his clear, 
bold, incisive doctrines early pushed him into the 
leadership of his party, and secured for him the 
active and persevering hostility of the ultramonta- 
nists. Never was the alliance of soul and body 
formed on terms of greater inequality than in his 
person. "It was like the compact in the fable, 
where all the spoils and honors fell to the giant's 
share, while the poor dwarf put up with all the 
danger and the blows. The mournful list of his 
chronic diseases renders almost miraculous the 
mental vigor which bore him through exertions 
resembling those of a disembodied spirit. But his 
ailments were such as, without affecting his mental 
powers, gave repose to his animal appetites, and 

* Reliquiae Baxterianse ; Orine's Life and Times of B. Baxter, 
vol. 1. 

t Ibid. ; Tullock, English Puritanism and its Leaders, p. 287. 
J See Orme's account of Baxter's writings in vol. 2 of his Life. 



430 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



quenched the thirst for all the honors and emolu- 
ments of this life. Death, though delaying to strike, 
stood continually before him, ever quickening his 
attention to that awful presence by approaching 
the victim under some new or varied aspect of dis- 
ease."* Under this influence he wrote and spoke. 
It was the secret of his power ; and he has himself 
said, in his immortal couplet, 

' ' I preached as never sure to preach again, 
And as a dying man to dying men." 

Baxter was one of the earliest, as he was one of 
the most illustrious sufferers under the Act of Uni- 
formity ; and at the age of forty-seven, bowed down 
beneath infirmities, he was driven from his cure at 
Kidderminster, to spend the remnant of his days 
alternately in citations before abandoned magis- 
trates, from Jeffries clown to the lowest pot-house 
justices, in filthy jails and precarious hiding-places.t 

Yet such was Baxter's zeal, that despite the vig- 
ilant repressive hand of the law, it still bubbled 
over into channels of multifarious activity. Soon 
after the ejectment, he took up his residence in the 
city of Coventry, and here he was accustomed to 
lecture in a private house on a neighboring com- 
mon, near the hamlet of Berkswell. He spoke gen- 
erally at a very early hour, sometimes before the 
day opened its eyes. On one occasion he left Cov- 
entry in the evening for the purpose of delivering 

* Brewer, Men of the Exodus of 1G62, pp. 38, 39. 
f Reliquire Baxterianre, Brewer, Orme. 



HEEOHS OF THE EXODUS. 



431 



the usual lecture in the grey of the next morning. 
As the night was dark, he lost his way, and after 
wandering at random for some hours, he paused at 
a way-side mansion to inquire the road. The ser- 
vant who came to the door informed his master 
that a person of very respectable appearance had 
lost his way. The gentleman told the servant to 
invite him in. Baxter readily complied, and met 
with a very hospitable reception. His conversation 
was such as to give his host an exalted idea of his 
good sense and extensive information. 

Baxter's entertainer, wishing to know the qual- 
ity of his guest, said, after supper, " As most per- 
sons have some employment or profession in life, I 
have no doubt, sir, that you have yours." Baxter 
replied with a smile, "Yes, sir, I am a man-catcher." 
" A man-catcher," said the host, " are you ? I am 
very glad ; you are the very man I want. I am a 
justice of the peace in this district, and I am com- 
missioned to secure the person of Dick Baxter, who 
is expected to preach in this neighborhood early 
to-morrow morning. You shall go with me, and I 
doubt not we shall easily apprehend the rogue." 

Baxter very prudently consented to accompany 
the justice. Accordingly they both set out in the 
early dawn for the Puritan rendezvous. On their 
arrival, a number of persons were observed hover- 
ing about; but seeing the carriage of the justice, 
and suspecting his intention, they would not enter 
the house. " My friend," said the justice to Bax- 
ter, (l I fear they have obtained some information 



432 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



of my design. Baxter has probably been apprized 
of it, for you see the people will not assemble. I 
think that if we extend our ride, our departure may 
induce them to collect, and on our return we can 
fulfil our commission." 

They rode on ; when they returned they found 
their efforts useless, for the people still appeared 
unwilling to enter the house. The magistrate, 
thinking he should be disappointed in his object, 
remarked to his companion that, " as the people 
were much disaffected to the government, he would 
be much obliged to him if he would address them 
on the subject of loyalty and good behavior." Bax- 
ter replied, " Perhaps that would not be deemed 
sufficient ; for as they have assembled for religious 
service, they would not be satisfied with advice of 
such a nature ; but if the magistrate would begin 
with prayer, I make no doubt that they would listen 
to our remarks, and I will endeavor to say some- 
thing to them." The justice, putting his hand to 
his pocket, said, " Indeed, sir, I have forgotten my 
prayer-book, or I would readily comply with your 
proposal. However, I am persuaded that a person 
of your appearance and respectability would be able 
to pray as well as talk with them. I beg therefore 
that you will begin with prayer." 

Baxter assented ; then alighting from the car- 
riage, they entered the building, and the people, 
hesitating no longer, followed them in. 

Baxter commenced the service by prayer, and 
prayed with that seriousness and fervor for which 



HEROES OF THE EXODUS. 433 



he was so eminent. The magistrate was soon melt- 
ed into tears. The great divine then preached in 
his accustomed lively and zealous manner. "When 
he had concluded, he turned to his host of the pre- 
vious night, and said, " I, sir, am that Dick Baxter 
of whom you are in pursuit. I am entirely at your 
disposal." 

The magistrate had felt so much, and had seen 
things in so different a light in the solemn service 
of the grey dawn, that he laid aside all enmity to 
the Non-conformists, was ever after their firm friend, 
and became a sincere Christian.* Was not that a 
sweet and blessed ruse ? 

John Howe, though fifteen years the junior of 
Baxter, was that great theologian's friend and fel- 
low-laborer. He was one of the most noble, spirit- 
ual, and gentle of men. His lofty soul was bot- 
tomed on combined earnestness and refinement. 
To the glow of the Puritan religious feeling, he 
added a chastened taste and a singular radiance of 
imagination.t 

Howe was one of the most persuasive of preach- 
ers. Others might rouse more by their vehemence 
and attract more by their doctrine, but none ap- 
proached him in dignity and a certain mixture of 
sweetness and sublimity of sentiment. Especially 
when he descanted on the glories of heaven, and 
his large imagination found room to expatiate amid 

s Independency in Warwickshire, by J. Sibree and M. Cas- 
ton. 

f Tullock, Palmer, Brewer. 

Puritans. 19 



434 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



its felicities, lie rose into a pictured eloquence which 
was wonderfully impressive.* 

In happier days Howe had been chaplain to 
Cromwell ;t but weary of the court, he had pre- 
vailed upon the Protector to dismiss him to his 
quiet parish at Torrington ; and it was while " do- 
ing the work of an evangelist " in this retired nook 
that the Act of Uniformity was passed.^ Apropos, 
a fine anecdote is told which illustrates at once 
Howe's catholicity and one of its results. 

It happened in Cromwell's time that the office 
of "Principal" in Jesus college, Oxford, became 
vacant, and Dr. Seth Ward was a candidate for it. 
Knowing HoAve to be high in favor, Ward went to 
him and solicited his influence with the Protector 
to obtain the appointment. Howe introduced him 
to Cromwell, and so strongly recommended him 
that, though the place had been already promised 
another applicant, Ward obtained an equivalent 
annual allowance. Since Ward was an avowed 
Episcopalian, this exhibits Howe's broad and tol- 
erant spirit. § Under the Restoration, Ward was 
preferred to the bishopric of Exeter, and Howe's 
parish was embraced within his diocese. A few 
days after the passage of the Act of Uniformity, as 
Howe was returning to his rectory from some neigh- 
boring chapel, he was told that an officer had been 

* Tulloek, Palmer, Brewer. 

f Baxter's Life, Brewer, Coleman, English Confessors, etc. 
X Stoughton, Church and State Two Hundred Years ago. 
§ Brewer, p. 46. 



HEEOES OF THE EXODUS. 



435 



to his house armed with the episcopal authority to 
arrest hirn as a non-conformist. Howe went straight 
to Exeter, not to remind him of former obligations, 
but " to await his lordship's pleasure." The bishop 
contented himself with attempting to induce his 
sometime benefactor to conform, and that failing, 
he stayed all proceedings.* 

A few years later, however, Howe was ejected 
from his living and imprisoned. t Afterwards he 
lived in exile during five years. He then returned 
to London, and became the pastor of a congrega- 
tion of dissenters who worshipped in Silver-street 
chapel. :f Here he lived on intimate terms with 
many of the dignitaries of the English church, and 
especially with Tillotson, afterwards archbishop of 
Canterbury.§ His virtues and eloquence disarmed 
enmity, and he might have gained a bishopric by 
conforming. But he remained true to his convic- 
tions, and breasted whatever opposition he could 
not placate until sheltered beneath the aegis of king 
William's toleration in 1688.11 Howe's life touched 
the year 1705 ; then, having " served his generation 
by the will of God, he fell asleep, and was gathered 
to his fathers." Howe's most famous work, "The 
Blessedness of the Bighteous," is the fit companion 
of Baxter's "Saints' Everlasting Best" — par nobile 
fratrum — both Christian classics. 

* Brewer, p. 46. f Stoughton, Coleman. 

% Brewer, p. 49. 

§ Williams, Story of the Two Thousand of 1G62. 
|| Ibid.; Brewer. 



436 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 

Owen was another of the great men of that time. 
If Baxter was the copious defender, if Howe was 
the contemplative idealist, Owen was the theolo- 
gian of Puritanism. " The main interest of his life 
and all the interest of his writings is theological. 
"Whatever is most characteristic and essential in 
Puritan divinity is to be found in his works. A 
bolder, more unflinching theorist never trod the 
way of those sublime revelations which 'slope 
through darkness up to God.' Along with scho- 
lastic earnestness, profound devotion to scriptural 
studies, and a life of eminent spirituality, we find 
in Owen a combined practical sense and business 
faculty which make him to resemble Calvin his 
prototype. He had the same administrative power, 
the same patience and coolness of purpose, with a 
far higher courtesy and tolerance of feeling. Hard 
and somewhat dogmatic in intellect, he was genial 
and gentle in his temper. Resolute in his own 
views, and ever ready to contend for them with his 
unresting pen, he had none of the meanness of big- 
otry. He protected Pocknock in his Hebrew pro- 
fessorship from the interference of the parliamentary 
triers when vice-chancellor of Oxford, and he left 
the prelatists unmolested when they assembled op- 
posite his door to worship according to the Prayer- 
book."* 

Of course the simple "I say so" of the govern- 
ment was powerless to coerce such a man as Owen 
into conformity ; and when despotic intolerance 

* Tullock, pp. 282, 283. 



HEEOES OF THE EXODUS. 437 



proffered him ease and honor with a gag, and fealty 
to conscience with stripes, and cried, " Choose," he 
did choose, and with a brave and trustful heart 
bore ' and forgave 

"The spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes." 

Although the ill-usage of John Bunyan began 
before the enactment of the Bartholomew act, the 
persecution which hunted him into. Bedford jail 
was the offspring of the same bigotry which gave 
birth to the misshapen progeny of 1662 — was an 
elder imp of the same vile brood. The honored 
tinker of Elstow therefore properly falls into rank 
beside the heroes of the exodus. It has been well 
said, that " in the character and history of John 
Bunyan, the great Head of the church seems to 
have provided a lesson of special significance and 
singular adaptedness for the men and the strifes of 
our own time. Born of the people, and in so low 
a condition that one of his modern reviewers, by 
a strange mistake, construed his self-dispar aging 
admissions to mean that he was the offspring of 
gypsies; bred to one of the humblest of handi- 
crafts, and having but the scantiest advantages as 
to fortune and culture, he yet rose, under the bless- 
ings of God's word and providence and Spirit, to 
the widest usefulness, and to an eminence that 
shows no tokens of decline."* 

* W. K Williams, D. D., in Prefatory Notice of "Kiches of 
Bunyan," Amer. Tr. Soc., 1851. 



438 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



Born at Elstow in 1628, Bunyan's youth was 
spent in wild and reckless profanity. But even- 
tually his soul was clutched "from the body of that 
death," and a little later he attached himself to a 
religious society of the Baptist persuasion in Bed- 
ford, where he received the seal of his apostleship.* 
Soon he began to preach ; and the plain speaking 
of which he was enamoured, the downright sincer- 
ity of his character, and the popularity of his min- 
istry among the people, made him obnoxious to 
local vigilance and jealousy. f 

On one occasion Bunyan was cited before Jus- 
tice Keelin for refusing to attend the Established 
church, and also for being an upholder of unlawful 
conventicles. He was obliged to listen to such 
words as these, uttered in the name of English jus- 
tice and coming from the lips of a drunken magis- 
trate : " Hear your judgment : you must be back to 
prison, and there lie for three months ; and at three 
months' end, if you do not submit to go to church 
to hear divine service, and leave your preaching, 
you shall be banished the realm. If after such a 
day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall 
be found in England, or be found to come into it 
again without the king's license, you must stretch 
by the neck for it. I tell you plainly." 

To this random and vindictive harangue, Bun- 
yan replied, "As to this matter, I am at point with 
you ; for if I were out of prison to-day, I would 

tt Tullock, English Puritanism, etc. ; Sketch of Bunyan. 
f Offor, Mem. of Bunyan; Philips, Life of Bunyan. 



HEEOES OE THE EXODUS. 439 



preach the gospel to-morrow, by the help of 
God."* 

Bunyan was hustled off to prison. The jails of 
that day were very different from those of this age. 
Instead of being castles in miniature, they were 
magnificent pigsties, where pollution courted dis- 
ease, and incipient wickedness was nourished into 
gigantic crime. The dungeon into which Bunyan 
was thrust at this time was twelve feet square, and 
built between two of the arches of the old bridge 
of Bedford. Being for the most part below the 
water's level, the walls were continually damp and 
sheeted with mildew. In this den Bmryan was 
kept twelve years, and compelled to herd with a 
rabble of male and female profligates and felons.f 

Here it was that the "immortal dreamer" saw 
his beatific visions, created his own little world, 
peopled it with the glorious creations of his tran- 
scendent genius, and watched his "Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress" up through the gate Beautiful to the Celestial 
City. 

Seated in his moist dungeon, with the slime 
beneath his feet, Bunyan drew upon the Scriptures 
for his doctrine, and upon the memory of his own 
experience for his pictures, and reared on this 
mixed soil the grandest allegory known to human 
letters. The writings of the Elstow. tinker were the 
outgrowth of his Puritanism ; and a religion which 
could produce men like Greatheart and Honest and 

* Offor, Mem. of Bunyan ; Philips. Life of Bunyan ; Ivimey, 
History of English Baptists. f Brewer, pp. 42, 43. 



4±0 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



Christian and Faithful and Hopeful, and of which 
the gentle and tender-hearted Mercy was a fair rep- 
resentative, had certainly features both of magna- 
nimity and of beauty. There is a simple earnest- 
ness and a pure-minded loveliness in Bunyan's 
highest creations that are very touching. Puritan- 
ism lives in his pages — spiritually and socially — in 
forms and in coloring which must ever command 
the sympathy and enlist the love of all good Chris- 
tians. 

While Bunyan, immured in the Bedford jail, 
was writing himself into immortality, his brothers 
in the faith were ejected from the ministry of that 
gospel which he loved. All who refused to give 
their "assent and consent" to every syllable of the 
Prayer-book, were ousted from their cures ; the 
moderate Episcopalians, who, with the great pastor 
of Kidderminster, had no objection to " a form of 
prayer," but who would not take a sweeping and 
compulsory oath;* the strict Presbyterians, who, 
having been inducted into the ministry by the lay- 
ing on of hands of the elders, refused to accept 
episcopal ordination; the Independents, headed by 
John Owen, who, though broken and in disgrace, 
"bated no jot of heart or hope;" and the Bap- 
tists, led by such worthies as Henry Jesse, Mr. Sy- 
moncls, who was ejected from Southfleet, in Kent, 
and who — according to Edwards, t an author of 
those times who endeavored to accomplish by abuse 

* Tullock, Keliquioe Baxterianos, etc. 
f Author of Gangnena. 



HEEOES OE THE EXODUS. 441 



wliat Hudibras was written to accomplish by satire — 
actually propounded the strange doctrine of reli- 
gious liberty, favoring " toleration and freedom for 
all men to worship God according to their con- 
sciences," and by Thomas Hardcastle, who. after- 
wards became pastor of the far-famed Baptist 
chapel, Broadmeacl, Bristol.* 

Far and wide over the land, in crowded city 
churches, in county towns, in rural villages, the 
same sad scene was enacted. Thomas Goodwin, 
formerly president of Magdalen college ; Havel of 
Dartmouth, whose thoughtful learning, exemplary 
piety, and impressive zeal formed the crown and 
the laurel of his ministry ; Edmund Calamy, whose 
week-day lecture " was attended by many persons 
of the greatest quality, there being seldom so few 
as sixty coaches," and who, when preaching before 
General Monk after the Restoration, on "filthy 
lucre,'^ said, " And why is it called ' filthy,' but 
because it makes men do base and filthy things? 
Some men," and he tossed his white handkerchief 
towards Monk's face, " will betray three kingdoms 
for filthy lucre's sake ;"t Stephen Charnock, whose 
sound judgment, vivid imagination, and affecting 
appeals secured him a well-deserved popularity ; 
Joseph Alleine, "tall and erect, with countenance 
sprightly and serene," to whose "lively serious- 
ness" Baxter bears testimony, as also to his "great 
ministerial skilfulness in the public explication and 

* Brewer, pp. 34, 35, 

t Williams, Story of the Two Thousand, p. 57. 
19* 



442 HIST OK Y OF THE PURITANS. 

application of the Scriptures — so melting, so con- 
vincing, so powerful," of whom Newton tells us that 
he had " a holy heart that boiled and bubbled up 
with good matter Thomas Yincent, the intrepid 
pastor who preached in the pulpits of clergymen 
who fled for their lives when London wailed under 
the plague ; Annesley, a name so revered that J ohn 
Wesley thought it an epitaph and a eulogium to 
write on the tombstone of his mother, " She was 
the youngest daughter of Dr. Annesley ;"t Dr. 
Thomas Manton, for ten years incumbent of St. 
Paul's, Covent Garden, whose ministry was at- 
tended by many in high places in church and 
state, and who exercised a beneficent and wide- 
reaching Christian influence ; Matthew Poole of St. 
Michael's Queen, in London, the annotator, whose 
" Synopsis," in five folio volumes, is an amazing 
treasure-house of learning; Gale, of wondrous 
scholarship ;'\. John Ray, the celebrated naturalist ; 
Philip Henry, the father of the well-known Mat- 
thew Henry the commentator, who was stopped 
in his godly labors by a series of acts as op- 
pressive as they were dishonorable :§ these, and 
a host besides, "whose works do follow them," 
men of marvellous strength of intellect, depth 
of learning, devotedness of spirit, and effective 
piety, were saying or had said a calm, a tender, 

* Williams, Story of the Two Thousand, p. 58. 

f Southey, Life of Wesley ; Brewer. 

t Williams, Story of the Two Thousand, p. 58. 

§ Brewer, p. 52 ; Sir J. B. Williams, Life of Philip Henry. 



HEKOES OF THE EXODUS. 443 

and a last farewell to their flocks.* As "Words- 
worth has hymned it : 

"Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject 
Those unconforming, whom one rigorous day- 
Drives from their cures, a voluntary prey 
To poverty and grief and disrespect, 
And some to want, as if by tempest wrecked 
On a wild coast. How destitute ! did they 
Feel not that conscience never did betray, 
That peace of mind is virtue's sure effect ; 
Their altars they forego ; their homes they quit, 
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod, 
And cast the future upon Providence, 
As men the dictates of whose inward sense 
Outweighs the world, whom self- deceiving wit 
Lures not from what they deem the cause of God."f 

In the memoirs of Philip Henry Ave are informed 
that " within a few miles around him there were so 
many ministers turned out to the wide world, strip- 
ped of their maintenance and exposed to continual 
and unwonted hardships, as, with their wives and 
children — most of them haying numerous families — 
made upwards of a hundred who lived on Provi- 
dence, and who, though oft reduced to want and 
straits, were not forsaken, but were enabled to 
* rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of their 
salvation' notwithstanding; to whom the promise 
was fulfilled, 6 So shalt thou dwell in the land, and 
verily thou shalt be fed.' "J Though God frequently 
calls his servants to pass through severe scenes of 
self-denial,, of trial, of suffering in the path of duty, 
yet he does not desert the faithful, but succors them 

* Williams, p. 59. f Wordsworth, Eccles. Sketches. 

X Cited by "Williams in his Story of the Two Thousand, p. 139. 



444 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 

with the strong arm of his deliverance. Though 
many of these clergymen were brought very low, 
had many children, were harassed by persecution, 
and though their friends were generally poor and 
unable to support them, yet one of the foremost of 
them solemnly affirmed that "in all his acquaint- 
ance he never knew nor could remember to have 
heard of any Non - conformist minister being in 
prison for debt."* 

There are many well -authenticated anecdotes 
illustrative of this phase of the exodus. Let us 
cite one or two, and take these as fair specimens 
of all. 

Mr. Henry Erskine, who had been minister at 
Cornhill, in Northumberland, suffered much after 
his ejectment, and had several remarkable interpo- 
sitions in his behalf. He resided for a time at Dry- 
burgh, where he and his family were often plunged 
in distress ; once in particular, when the " cruse of 
oil and the barrel of meal" were entirely spent, so 
that when they had supped that night, there re- 
mained neither bread, meal, meat, nor money in the 
house. In the morning the young children began 
to cry for their breakfast, and their father endeav- 
ored to divert them, and at the same time he did 
what he could to encourage his wife and himself to 
depend upon that Providence which "feeds the 
young ravens when they cry." While he was thus 
engaged, a farmer knocked at the door, and called 
for some one to come and help him off with his 
* Sir J. B. Williams. Life of Philip Hemy. 



HEEOES OF THE EXODUS. 



445 



load. Being asked from whence he came, and 
what he would have, he told them he came from 
the Lady Eeburn, with some provisions for Mr. 
Erskine. He was told that he must be mistaken, 
and that his load was most likely for another Mr. 
Erskine who dwelt at Shirfield, in the same town. 
The man replied, " No, I know what I 'm about ; 
these things were sent to Mr. Henry Erskine. 
Come, some one, and help me off with the load, 
else I will throw it down at the door." He was 
assisted in carrying the sack into the house. On 
opening it, it was found to be filled with meat and 
meal. This incident gave the pious pastor no small 
encouragement to rely upon his bountiful Benefac- 
tor in all future straits of a kindred nature." 

At another time this same clergyman was in 
Edinburgh, and he was so reduced that he had but 
three half-pence in his pocket. As he walked about 
the streets, not knowing what to do, or what course 
to steer, he was accosted by a countryman who 
asked if he was not Mr. Henry Erskine. " Yes," 
said the minister. " Then," said the man, " I have 
a letter for you," which he accordingly delivered. 
In it were enclosed seven Scotch ducatoons, with 
these words written : " Sir, receive this from a sym- 
pathizing friend. Earewell." There was no name ; 
and when Mr. Erskine turned to question the mes- 
senger, he was gone.f 

Mr. Oliver Heywood, ejected from . Coley, in 

* Coleman, Two Thousand Confessors, p. 1 1 1. 
f Ibid., ut an tea. 



446 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 

Yorkshire, also suffered greatly after the loss of 
his income. On one occasion his children became 
impatient for food, and he called his servant Mar- 
tha, who would not desert the family in their dis- 
tress, and said to her, " Martha, take a basket, and 
go to Halifax : call upon Mr. North, a shop-keeper 
there, and desire him to lend me five shillings. If 
he is kind enough to do so, buy such things as you 
know we most want. The Lord give you good- 
speed ; and meantime we will offer up our petition 
to Him who ' feedeth the young ravens when they 
cry.' " The girl went, but on reaching the house 
of Mr. North her heart failed her, and she passed 
and repassed the door again and again without 
going in to tell her errand. At length Mr. North 
himself coming to the shop-door and witnessing her 
strange behavior, called her to him and asked her 
if she was not Mr. Heyw'ood's servant. When she 
told him that she was, he said to her, " I am glad 
to see you, as some friends have given me five 
guineas for your master, and I was just thinking 
how I could send the money." Upon this Martha 
burst into tears, and told her story. He was much 
affected, and told her to come to him if the like 
necessity should again return. 

Having procured the necessary provisions, she 
hastened back to them, when, upon her entering 
the house, the children eagerly examined the bas- 
ket, and the father, hearing the servant's story, 
smiled and said, " The Lord hath not forgotten to 
be gracious ; his word is true from the beginning : 



HEROES OF THE EXODUS. 



447 



' They that seek the Lord shall not want any good 
thing.' "* 

One of the most marked traits of these heroes 
of the exodus was their irrepressibility , if we may 
coin a word. No suffering could break the heart 
of their faith, no despotism could choke their gos- 
pel. They were "instant in season, out of season," 
in proclaiming the truth which God had given unto 
them. They uttered it from the pulpit so long as 
they were permitted to do so ; when driven thence, 
they proclaimed it in unsympathizing courts, shot 
it from beneath their prison bars, and scattered 
it in benedictions from the scaffold itself. When 
one channel was blocked up, they discovered or 
created new ones. When they could not preach, 
they wrote, and the press became a broader pulpit. 
Many were the shifts to which they were put in 
the prosecution of their purpose. Mr. Thomas 
Jollie, after his ejectment, preached in his own 
house. To avoid being informed against — for he 
was a man of prudence as well as zeal — he adopted 
this contrivance : there being in the common sit- 
ting-room a staircase with a door at the bottom, 
he stood to preach on the second step; the door 
was cut in two, and while the lower part was shut, 
the upper part, being fastened to the other by hin- 
ges, would fall back on brackets, so as to form a 
desk. To this was fixed a string, by which he could 
easily draw it up on intelligence being given of the 
approach of informers by those who were appointed 
* Coleman, Two Thousand Confessors, ut antea. 



448 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



as sentinels to give notice ; he then immediately 
went up stairs, so that when the enemy entered 
the room, they could not prove that he had been 
preaching.* 

Mr. Henry Maurice, ejected from Strettin, in 
Shropshire, was once preaching in a private house, 
when a constable entered and commanded him to 
desist. The un daunted clergyman charged him in 
the name of the great God, whose word he was 
preaching, to forbear molesting him as he would 
answer for it at the last day. The officer hereon 
sat down, trembling, heard the preacher patiently 
till he concluded, and then quietly departed.f 

These instances show that the story of the suffer- 
ings of the ejected, gloomy as is its general tone, 
is not unrelieved by gleams of romantic adventure 
and marvellous interpositions. It must have been 
a singular spectacle which one of these conventicles 
presented, when hundreds would assemble in some 
obscure lane, at dead of night, to listen to some 
beloved pastor, in an old-fashioned chapel, fitted 
with secret doors, leading to the roofs of the adjoin- 
ing houses, so that, on the approach of the enemy, 
at the signal of the sentinels placed at the entrance, 
the whole congregation would vanish in a moment, 
and the astonished constables would find nothing 
within but empty benches. J 

Such was the life which the Non-conformists led 

* Coleman, Two Thousand Confessors, pp. 148, 149. 
\ Ibid.* 

% Story of the Ejectment, lecture by Rev. T. McCrie, D. D. 



HEKOES OF THE EXODUS. 449 

under the Act of Uniformity, and under what was 
termed the "Five-Mile Act," which prohibited all 
ejected ministers from residing within five miles of 
their own cures, and which Burnet pronounced " a 
step in the progress of intolerant cruelty which only 
just fell short of the stake and the fire."* 

The faithfulness of these men to conscience, 
their faith in God, their meekness, their devoted- 
ness to their life-work — these were the traits which 
rifted them above their persecutors, which crowned 
them with undying fame, which made them walk 
upon the stars. Ere long the indignity with which 
they were treated created a popular sympathy and 
indignation which helped largely to necessitate the 
revolution of 1688. 'T is only the universal history. 
The framers of unjust laws punish themselves ; the 
contrivers of cruel and wicked acts are pursued by 
a just avenger, and their treatment of others made 
to recoil upon themselves. 

"Nec lex est justior ulla, 
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. " . 

The more prominent of these sufferers have had 
their epitaph written by the muse of history ; but 
that noble army of " obscure martyrs " who toiled 
not for the " all hail hereafter," but were content 
with the simple performance of their duty, these 

"Have no place in storied page, 
No rest in marble shrine ; 
They are past and gone with a perished age, 
They died, and 'made no sign.' 

* Burnet's Own Times. 



450 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



But work that shall find its wages yet, 
And deeds that their God did not forget, 

Done for the love divine — 
These were their mourners, and these shall be 
The crown of their immortality. 

"They healed sick hearts till theirs were broken, 
And dried sad eyes till theirs lost sight ; 

"We shall know at last by a certain token 
How they fought and fell in the fight. 

Salt tears of sorrow unbeheld, 

Passionate cries unchronicled, 
And silent strifes for the right ; 

Angels shall count them, and earth shall sigh 

That she left her best children to battle and die."* 

* Edwin Arnold's Obscure Martyrs. 



THE SCOURGES. 



451 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

THE SCOURGES. 

England now became a Pantheon of impiety. 
Keligion was puritanical ; virtue was disloyalty ; 
honor was treason. Good men were hunted when 
alive, and disturbed when dead. Those Puritans 
who, in happier days, had been interred in West- 
minster Abbey, in Henry Yllth's chapel, or within 
the precincts of the collegiate church of Westmin- 
ster, of both sexes and all ranks, were dug up and. 
thrown into one pit in St. Margaret's church-yard.* 
Even the grave is no protection from the ghoul. 

Profligate wits slobbered over decency with ob- 
scene jests. Never had public morality been at so 
low an ebb. "I remember," says Sir Matthew 
Hale, " that when Ben Jonson, in his play of the 
'Alchemist,' introduced Anartus in derision of the 
Puritans, with many of their phrases taken out of 
Scripture, in order to render that party ridiculous, 
the comedy was detested because it seemed to re- 
proach religion itself; but now, when the Puritans 
were brought again upon the stage in their pecul- 
iar habits, and with their distinguishing phrases of 
Scripture, and exposed to the laughter of specta- 
tors, the show met with approbation and applause."t 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 514 ; Pepys' Diary, 1667. 
f Cited in Neale, vol. 2, p. 517. 



452 HISTOEY OF THE PTJKITANS. 



The story of the wild men and manners of that 
age reads like a chapter culled from the pages of an 
obscene romance. Even the homage of hypocrisy 
was no longer paid to virtue. The play-houses 
were nests of prostitution.* The king, the queen, 
the courtiers wandered through the streets of Lon- 
don masked, noisy, and profane. The houses of 
quiet citizens were entered by these titled masquer- 
aders, and indecencies were committed whose very 
memory paints the cheek with blushes. The ladies 
of the court hounded on these abhorrent revels; 
they were carried about in hackney chairs, preceded 
by footmen waving flaming flambeaux; and once, 
'tis said, the queen's chairman, not knowing who 
she was, left her at midnight to return to "Whitehall 
in a cart.t 

Not only did licentiousness taint the manners 
and corrupt the hearts of the aristocracy of the 
Restoration, it poisoned the letters of the epoch. 
From Dryden down to Durfey, the common charac- 
teristic was hard-hearted, swaggering sensuality, at 
once inelegant and inhumane. £ The omnipresent 
profligacy of the plays, satires, songs, and novels of 
that clay is a plague-spot, marked, ineffaceable, on 
English literature. Nothing was more character- 
istic of the times than the care with which poets 
contrived to put all their loosest verses into the 
* Neale, vol. 2, p. 547. 

f Rochester's Trial of the Poets, Jeremy Collier, Dryclen's 
Life, etc. 

I Shiel's Life of Southern ; Some Account of the English 
Stage. 



THE SCOURGES. 



453 



moiiths of women. The compositions in which the 
greatest license was taken were the epilogues. These 
were always recited by favorite actresses ; and noth- 
ing charmed the depraved play-goers so much as to 
hear lines grossly indecent repeated by a beautiful 
girl who was supposed to have not yet lost her inno- 
cence.^" 

J eremy Collier broke many a stout lance against 
this reckless Jezebel of English comedy ; but even 
he could not effect much against the spirit of his 
age; and, disgusted with his effort at reform, he 
might have recited those matchless words which 
Milton puts into the mouth of his chaste lady in the 
Mask of Comus : 

"Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric, 
That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence ; 
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced ; 
Yet should I try, the uncontrolled worth 
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirit 
To such a flame of sacred vehemence, 
That dumb things should be moved to sympathize, 
And the brute earth would lend her nerves to shake, 
Till all thy impure structures, reared so high, 
"Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false kead."t 

" The servile judges and sheriffs of those evil 
days," observes Macauley, " could not shed blood 
so fast as the poets called for it. Cries for more 
victims, hideous jests on hanging, bitter taunts on 
those who, having stood by the king in the hour of 
danger, now advised him to deal mercifully and 
generously by his vanquished enemies, were pub- 

* Macauley ; Pepys' Diary, 1667 ; Walpole's Anecdotes, 
f Milton's Poetical Works, Mitford's edition, vol. 2, p. 259. 



454 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



licly recited on the stage; and that nothing might t 
be wanting to the guilt and the shame, were recited 
by women who, having long been taught to discard 
all modesty, were now taught to discard all com- 
passion."* 

God now sent a scourge, ghastly, awful, unpre- 
cedented, to choke these impious revels, and to 
cleanse this lazar-house. In 1665 the plague ap- 
peared. The terror had visited England before — 
once in the days of king James, and once before 
that — but never before had it spread its wings and 
swooped to such a desolating banquet. In the win- 
ter of 1664 it clutched its first victims. f Two men 
sickened in Drury Lane. Headache, fever, a burn- 
ing sensation in the stomach, dimness of sight, livid 
spots upon the chest, these were the symptoms.:): 
Gradually the dread disease spread; the weekly 
mortality lists told the freezing story. Through 
the spring it slyly crept, ever increasing its depre- 
dations, until by June, 1665, it threw off all disguise, 
opened its ghastly court, and in imitation of the ar- 
istocracy, held its revels, and laughed in a hideous 
carnival. In one night four thousand died ; and in 
one month, ten thousand.§ Men fled in terror. All 
who could quit the smitten town made haste to do 
so ; but multitudes tied by poverty or by duty to 
the city pavements might not leave. || 

" One shop after another was closed ; one dwell- ' 

* Macauley, Hist, of Eng., vol. 1, p. 317. 

f Palmer's Non-conformist Memorial, sec. 6 ; Hume. 

X Pepys' Diary. § Ibid. || Ibid. 



THE SCOUEGES. 



455 



. ing after another was robbed of its inmates. The 
long red cross, with the words, ' Lord, have mercy 
on us,' inscribed upon the door, indicated that with- 
in death was at work. The watchmen appointed 
by the magistrates stood at the entrance, armed 
with halberts, to prevent all communication be- 
tween the inmates and outsiders. Instead of the 
busy crowds that once lined the thoroughfares, a 
few persons might be seen walking cautiously along 
the middle of the path, afraid of each other's touch. 
'The highways were forsaken, and the travellers 
walked in byways.' A coach was rarely seen, save 
when, with curtains closely drawn, it conveyed some 
plague- smitten mortal to the pest-house. The wain, 
laden with timber and other material, had disap- 
peared; men had no heart to build, and the half- 
finished structure was left to premature decay. The 
cart bearing provisions came not within the city- 
gate ; the market was held in the outskirts, where 
the seller feared to touch the buyer, and the money 
was dipped in vinegar before passing from hand to 
hand. The London cries, the sound of music, the 
gay laugh of thoughtless pleasure, the din of trade 
had ceased. 

"'Life and thought had gone away side by side.' 

The deep, unbroken solitude of the great city was 
overwhelming. Whole streets were desolate, doors 
left open, windows shattered with the wind, houses 
empty. 

" Suddenly did the disease smite the sufferers. 



456 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



Sometimes they dropped down in the streets ; oth- 
ers perhaps had time to go to the next stall or porch, 
c and just sit down and die.' The man who drove 
the death-cart expired on his way to the huge pit 
dug for the reception of thousands, or fell dead 
upon the heap of corpses that he was tumbling into 
that rude sepulchre. A person went home hale and 
strong ; ' at evening there was trouble, and before 
morning he was not.' "* 

Filled with awe, great numbers crowded to the 
churches, crying, " What shall we do to be saved ?" 
Many of the parishes were deserted ; all worldly 
priests deserted their posts in this crucial hour. 
Some of the Established clergy remained, "faithful 
among the faithless found," but the large majority 
fled in wild terror. t Then the Non-conformists re- 
placed them ; the ejected ministers broke the bread 
of life to these hungry and smitten souls ; and all 
parties have since united to praise the faithful phi- 
lanthropy which characterized their efforts. J 

"People flocked to preaching," says Yincent, one 
of the most tireless of the Puritan laborers through 
the plague, " and every sermon was unto them as 
if it were their last. Old Time seemed now to 
stand at the head of the pulpit with his great scythe, 
saying with a hoarse voice, ' Work while it is called 
day; at night I will mow thee down.' Grim Death 
seemed to stand at the side of the pulpit with his 



* Stcragliton, pp. 307, 308. 

f Neale, vol. 2, p. 534 ; Stougliton. 

i Ibid., Pepys' Diary, etc. 



THE SCOUBGES. 



457 



sliarp arrow, saying, ' Do thou shoot God's arrows, 
and I will shoot mine.' The Grave seemed to lie 
at the foot of the pulpit, with dust in her bosom, 
croaking, 

' 1 ' Louden thy cry 

To God, 

To men, 
And now fulfil tliy trust ; 
Here thou must lie ; 

Mouth stopped, 

Breath gone, 
And silent in the dust.'* 

One hundred thousand victims glutted the maw of 
the pestilence ; and it did not cease its ravages until 
the fall frosts nipped its sting."f 

Strange to say, the weight of this calamity did 
not stun the drunken court into sobriety. " It will 
•amaze all posterity," affirms Neale, " to learn that, 
in a time both of pestilence. and when the Puritan 
ministers were jeoparding their lives in the service 
of the souls of distressed and dying citizens of Lon- 
don, the prime minister and his creatures, instead 
of mourning over the nation's sins and meditating 
a reformation of manners, should pour out all their 
vengeance upon the Non-conformists, in order to 
make their condition more insupportable. One 
would have thought that such a judgment from 
heaven, and such a generous compassion in the 
ejected clergy, should have softened the hearts of 
their most cruel enemies ; but the Puritans were to 



* Vincent, God's Terrible Voice in the City, 
f Pepys' Diary, Stoughton, Neale, Hume. 

Puritans. 20 



458 HISTOKY OF THE PUEITANS. 



be crushed in defiance of the rebukes of Providence; 
and as if the judgment of Heaven was not heavy 
enough, nor the legislation sufficiently severe, the 
bishops threw their weight into the scale; for in the 
very midst of the plague Archbishop Sheldon sent 
orders to the several diocesans of his province to 
return to him the names of all ejected non-conform- 
ing ministers, with their places of abode and man- 
ner of life. The design of this inquiry was, to gird 
the laws yet closer upon the dissenters, and by de- 
priving them of their already slender means of live- 
lihood, to starve them into exile or conformity. 

" The vices of England not being sufficiently 
punished by pestilence and by war, which then 
raged with Holland, it pleased Almighty God, in 
1666, to suffer the city of London to be laid in ashes 
by a dreadful conflagration, which blazed through 
three days, and consumed thirteen thousand two 
hundred dwelling-houses, eighty -nine churches, 
among which was St. Paul's, and many public 
structures, schools, libraries, and stately edifices.* 
Multitudes lost their goods and merchandise ; the 
whole town changed its face ; many of the nobility 
lost the greater part of their substance, and some 
few people lost their lives. The king, the duke of 
York, and the courtiers witnessed the desolation, 
but had not the power to check its progress, till at 
length it ceased almost as wonderfully as it began. 

* Most of the antiquities of old London were lost at this time, 
and the city as rebuilt was essentially different from the London 
of the Tudors. 



THE SCOUKGES. 



459 



Moorfields was filled with household goods ; the cit- 
izens were forced to lodge in huts and tents ; and 
many families who were in the last week in pros- 
perity, were now reduced to beggary, and obliged 
to commence the world again. "* 

The plague was the offspring of profligacy and 
total neglect of all sanitary laws. Sensuality was 
its father, and filth was its mother. The great fire 
is said to have been lighted by Jesuit incendiaries ; 
and one of these was executed on his own confes- 
sion, t Between these scourges Puritanism gained 
a brief respite, and gasped for breath. " But none 
of these calamities had any further influence upon 
the court prelates than that they dared not perse- 
cute the preachers so severely for the present. "J 

* Neale, vol. 2, pp. 535-539. f Ibid. $ Ibid. 



460 HISTORY OF THE PUEITANS. 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

THE LAST BEVEL. 

Following liard upon the plague and the great 
fire came the downfall of Clarendon, premier of 
England. He lost the seals through his haughty 
insolence and opposition to the plainest maxims of 
constitutional law.* Clarendon was a bitter hater, 
and he used every wile to compass the destruction 
of Puritanism. "It was a great ease that befell 
good men when he was impeached and banished," 
says Eapin ; " for he was wont to decoy those whom 
he hated into conspiracies or pretended plots, and 
then upon those rumors innocent people were laid 
in prison, so that no one's life was safe."t 

Burnet informs us that "the king was highly 
offended at the unnatural behavior of the bishops. 
Sheldon and Morley, who kept close by Lord Clar- 
endon, the great patron of persecuting power, lost 
the royal favor : the former never recovered it ; the 
latter was sent from court into his diocese. "J 

Meanwhile the rectitude, the diligence, the pa- 
tience of the dissenters placated popular resent- 
ment ; pity bred proselytes ; and under the fiercest 
frown of oppression, their numbers visibly increas- 
ed^ Not only so, a nobler generation of church- 
* Hallam, Hurne, Macauley. 

f Bapin, Hist. Eng., vol. 2. i Burnet's Own Times. 

§ Palmer's Non-conformists' Memorial ; Neale. 



THE LAST EEYEL. 



461 



men now came on the stage. Attempts were made 
from time to time to abate the rigors of those stat- 
utes which pressed conformity ; and the threatening 
aspect of foreign affairs gave constantly increasing- 
authority to these efforts. Protestantism was men- 
aced on the Continent. Louis XIV. was in the full 
flush of his career of conquest. Spanish Flanders, 
overrun by the French armies, had just been yield- 
ed in full sovereignty to that haughty monarch who 
had said, " Eetat cest moi /" 

Charles II., bribed by Louis' gold and cajoled 
by his French mistresses, looked on unconcerned;* 
but England was alarmed. The moderate church- 
men and the moderate Cavaliers began to think 
that it was time to initiate a reform. Awed by the 
critical situation abroad, and spurred by the grow- 
ing insolence of the Romanist party at home, such 
lawyers as the lord-keeper Briclgman and Chief- 
justice Hale, and such bishops as Tillotson and 
Stillingfleet, did their utmost to curb intolerance; 
esteeming it folly to batter brother Protestants with 
whom they disagreed on minor points, when the 
common enemy, Rome, thundered at the gate.f 

Parliament too had changed. The Commons 
were weary of voting supplies which were lavished 
in debauchery ; and they were disgusted with the 
feeble part which England now played in the Euro- 
pean drama. Many a Cavalier recalled the iron days 
of the Protectorate, and sighed when he contrasted 

* Harris, Life of Charles II. ; Vaughan, Hist, of Eng. ; James 
EL, Mem. t Rapin, Burnet's Own Times. 



462 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



that time with this degenerate age, when the island 
stooped to be the paid lackey of a neighbor court. 

These things made wise men anxious to secure 
peace and aniity in the Protestant camp ; and the 
moderates even went so far as to draw up a pro- 
gramme of comprehension.* Then the party of the 
past made a rally. The House of Commons was 
Avon to vote that no such proposition should be 
made on its floor. The jubilant bishops hurried to 
the king, and bothered him into the issue of a proc- 
lamation which directed the strict enforcement of 
the penal code against the Puritans. t 

We have said that the king was bothered into 
this action : perhaps he was bought ; for the "gift" 
of a sum of money would, notoriously, purchase the 
royal spendthrift's signature to any document. % At 
all events, it is certain that Charles favored a toler- 
ation, because he desired to permit the Romanists, 
whose coreligionist he secretly was even now, to 
secure a prestige which they could not gain while 
under the ban. So far however as their personal 
security went, they were, and had been, safety shel- 
tered under the prerogative. The court swarmed 
with them. The duke of York was an open and en- 
ergetic Jesuit. The chapels of the foreign ambas- 
sadors welcomed them to the interdicted service, 
and the mass was chanted at Whitehall by the con- 
fessors of the queen. § 



* Carrel's Counter Bevolution in England ; Neale, Burnet, 
t Kapin, Neale, Hume. % Harris, Carrel, Neale, etc. 

§ Baxter's Life and Times ; Palmer, Bapin, Burnet. 



THE LAST EEVEL. 



463 



Yet at sucli an hour, menaced from abroad, 
insidiously assailed from within, certain bishops of 
the Established church inaugurated a new perse- 
cution. Conventicles were forbidden ; Non-con- 
formists were once more hunted, and such men 
as Baxter and Taverner were flung into Newgate. 
The Conventicle Act expired in 1670 ; but it was 
galvanized into new life by a vote of the Commons, 
and made even more vicious than before, by the 
addition of two clauses — one of which bound all 
magistrates, under fine, to its stern execution, and 
thereby drove many honest and able judges from 
the bench ;* and the other of which provided that 
the act should be construed most largely and bene- 
ficially for the suppression of conventicles, and for 
the encouragement and justification of all persons 
employed in its execution. t 

This at once armed a multitude of informers, 
who took on as many shapes as Proteus, and who 
were as mischievously active and vindictive as Sa- 
tan in Milton's poem. 

Still the dissenters braved the act. Indeed, the 
Quakers made no attempt at concealment, meeting, 
with imperturbable heroism, at their accustomed 
hours and places. When dragged to prison, they 
made no resistance, and would pay no fines : and 
when their term of confinement expired, they went 
again to their wonted resorts. All this was done 

* Neale, vol. 2, p. 549. 

f Statutes of the Realm ; Pari. Hist. ; Carrel. 



464 HISTOEY OP THE PUKITANS. 

without bravado, but with the calm dignity of mar- 
tyrdom.* 

Parliament at length became alarmed at the in- 
crease of popery ; and the Commons, after cement- 
ing an alliance with Sweden and Holland, known as 
" the Triple Alliance,"t proceeded to petition the 
king for the banishment of the Jesuits and the 
suppression of the Romanist worship in England. { 
Charles equivocated ; the Commons persisted. Then 
the debonnair monarch dissolved the Parliament; 
and calling to his assistance five councillors — call- 
ed, from the initial letters of their names, the Ca- 
bal! — undertook to govern by the prerogative. 

Charles was bribed into this course by the bright 
Louis oVor of France and by the still brighter eyes 
of several new French mistresses.il If he aimed at 
absolute government, he would not trouble himself 
sufficiently to gain his goal, and was amply satisfied 
when his corrupt ministers acquired liberty to enact 
their pleasure. Whatever occurred, he was not to 
be troubled. His idea of monarchy was, ability to 
draw without limit on the national treasury for the 
gratification of his private tastes ; wealth and honors 
with which to hire persons to help him kill the time ; 
and " friends " willing to assist him, w T hen the state 
was brought by maladministration to the depths of 

* Sewel's Hist, of the Quakers ; Neale. 

f Sir William Temple's Memoirs. % Pari. Hist. 

§ Lord Clifford, a papist ; Astley Cooper, afterwards Lord 
Shaftsbury ; the duke of Buckingham, a debauche ; Earl Arling- 
ton, a concealed papist ; and Lord Lauderdale. 

II Memoirs of James II. ; Carrel, Eapin. 



THE LAST EEYEL. 



465 



humiliation and the brink of ruin, in keeping the 
unwelcome truth from the purlieus of his seraglio* 

His new councillors were precisely to his taste. 
One was an avowed papist ; another was a con- 
cealed one ; still another was a debauclie ; and the 
last was an atheist.!" And now both king and coun- 
cil became the puppets of France, mere echoes of 
Louis XIV. Seven hundred thousand pounds in 
French gold were poured into the pockets of this 
junto of profligates within twenty-four months — a 
very handsome retaining fee. Then Louis sent his 
programme across the channel : the gradual intro- 
duction of popery, under the guise of absolutism ; 
two steps immediately to be taken, the marriage of 
the duke of York, recently a widower by the death 
of Clarendon's daughter, and the dissolution of the 
Triple Alliance by a war with Holland.^ 

This mandate was obeyed. James married the 
princess of Modena, an Italian papist ;§ and a few 
scurrilous medals, struck at the Hague, to satirize 
Charles' amours, served as a pretext for war with 
the Dutch.H 

Then the grateful council, thinking that Louis 
had paid them sufficiently well to warrant some 
extra, uninspired zeal, hatched a notable scheme. 
It was proposed, under cover of the dispensing power, 
to enlist the Puritans against the church, and under 

* Macauley, Hist. Eng. f Ibid. ; Neale, vol. 2. 

% Sir William Temple's Memoirs. 
§ Ibid. ; Memoirs James II. ; Neale. 
|| Motley's Dutch Bepublic. 

20* 



466 HIS TOE Y OF THE PURITANS. 



the banner of the court, by offering them the pro- 
tection of the crown, and proclaiming a general 
toleration, in which the Romanists should be in- 
cluded.* 

Against this scheme Lord-keeper Bridgman pro- 
tested, not because he did not favor toleration, but 
because he denied the constitutionality of such an 
act ; and his protest cost him his office, t 

" The Protestant Non-conformists," says Neale, 
" disliked the dispensing power, and were not for- 
ward to accept of their liberty in that way. They 
were sensible that the indulgence was not granted 
out of love for them, nor would continue any longer 
than it would serve the interest of popery ."J Never- 
theless many ministers availed themselves of the 
indulgence. Yast crowds flocked to the dissenting 
chapels, and a cautious and moderate vote of thanks 
was presented to the king ; but all trembled for the 
result. § 

At the same time the Papists, who already rival- 
led the Protestants in numbers as they surpassed 
them in craft, thronged from every corner of the 
metropolis, audacious, insolent, menacing. Church- 
men were challenged to dispute with them ; they 
threatened to assassinate all who denounced their 
creed ; and pointing to the court, and jingling their 
foreign gold, they seemed already to regard the isl- 
and as their own. 

In 1673 Parliament met. The dissatisfaction 



* Neale, vol. 2, p. 554. 

f Ibid. ; Russell's Life of Russell. 



X Neale. § Ibid. 



THE LAST REVEL. 



487 



was general. The king was out of funds. The 
House refused to vote a shilling, until the king sur- 
rendered the dispensing poiver. The Cabal urged 
Charles to make a bold stand for the prerogative, 
and promised him success. But it was not in him 
to make a persistent stand for any thing ; and since 
his mistresses required money, he was easily per- 
suaded by the tearful fair ones to sell that usurped 
authority to the Commons.* 

By this action, the Non-conformists and the Bo- 
manists stood alike uncovered and exposed ; but the 
passage of the Test Act, a few clays later, which con- 
fined all places of profit or trust to conformists alone, 
was a severe blow at the Papists, since many of 
them held high office, and it at once broke the Ca- 
bal.t 

Now once more the Puritans entered the dark 
valley. The whole pack of informers were again 
unleashed. Dissenters of all creeds were united in 
the bond of a common misfortune. True to the 
genius of their faith, the Bomanists began to plot. 
James was a bigot and a zealous proselyter. He 
was heir apparent. Charles was a papist ; but he 
was soft, purposeless, and inefficient, more devoted 
to his amours than to his creed. Borne needed a 
king who should be made of sterner stuff. It was 
therefore resolved to assassinate one brother, and 
to enthrone the other ; and this purpose got fresh 
vitality from the conclusion of peace with Holland, 
which occurred in 1678. From these feelings sprang 

* Eapin ; Carrel ; Mackintosh, Hist. Eevolution 1688. f Ibid. 



468 HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



the Bye- House Plot. Rumors of a conspiracy reach- 
ed the court. Those in the secret professed to 
laugh; the king gave the reports no credit. "It is 
not probable," said Charles to Lord Halifax, as 
their chat turned one day upon these sayings, " that 
papists should conspire to kill me ; have I not 
always been their countenancer ?" "Yes, sire," re- 
turned his lordship, "you have been too kind to 
them ; but they know that you will only trot, and 
they w r ant a prince that will gallop."* 

When the plot was discovered, the king was pen- 
sive for some time ; but England did not recover 
from the shock so quickly as did the thoughtless 
and giddy Stuart. Now, as before in the case of 
the gunpowder-plot, great exertions were made to 
connect the Puritans with the exploded conspiracy : 
but unhappily for the success of this project, a little 
book was discovered in a meal-tub in the house of a 
prostitute, which contained the whole scheme of the 
fiction ; and this bob to the larger kite was called 
the Meal-tub Plot.f 

Through all these years the alliance between 
the moderate churchmen and the Non-conformists 
grew closer and closer. Religion was clear to both ; 
the legends of liberty stirred the blood of either; 
they were united by common opposition to the Ro- 
man tenets ; they looked with the same alarm upon 
the gloomy portents of the time ; and they clasped 
hands over minor differences, in an effort to rescue 

* Mackintosh, Hist. Revolution 1G88. 
t Ibid. ; Neale. 



THE LAST EEVEL. 



469 



their country from the abyss towards which the Stu- 
arts hurried it.* 

In the elections of 1679, all parties exerted 
themselves. The low-churchmen and the dissent- 
ers made common cause ; the high-churchmen and 
the tories did the same. "When Parliament met, its 
tone was so independent that Charles prorogued it. 
Assembled again in 1680, the liberalists were still 
more prominent ; the two great parties assumed the 
historic names of Whigs and Tories, names still in 
vogue ; and the Whigs clutched their first trophy in 
the triumphant passage of these two resolutions, 
which marked an epoch : 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of the Com- 
mons, that the acts of Parliament made in the 
reigns of Elizabeth and king James against popish 
recusants ought not to be extended against Prot- 
estant dissenters. 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this House, 
that the prosecution of Protestant dissenters upon 
the penal laws is at this time grievous to the sub- 
ject, weakening to the Protestant interest, an en- 
couragement to popery, and dangerous to the pub- 
lic peace."t 

The Parliament at the same time attempted to 
change the succession, by setting aside the duke of 
York on account of his inimical creed.:): 

Upon this, Charles abruptly dissolved it. In 

* Russel's Life of Russell ; Lord Lonsdale's Memoirs, 
f Pari. Hist,, Statutes of the Realm, Mackintosh, Neale. 
% Mackintosh, Neale, Macanley. 



470 HISTOEY OP THE PUEITANS. 



1681 another Parliament assembled at Westminster 
Hall ; but the king, learning that the Bill of Exclu- 
sion was to be again brought in, angrily dismissed 
this also, after a session of seven days.* 

This was the last Parliament that Charles ever 
faced. The old laws still stained the Statute-book. 
The resolutions of the Commons had been declara- 
tory, not judicial; and the court, sore and ruffled, 
hastened to put the merciless machinery once more 
in motion. Charles had a double motive for his old 
abhorrence of the Puritans : they were now Whigs 
in politics, as well as dissenters in religion ; so the 
persecution which he now set afoot knew no cessa- 
tion, and was without relief. 

Sadly closed the record. In February, 1685, 
Charles II., struck by apoplexy, dropped the scep- 
tre from his nerveless hand. His mistresses lav- 
ished their tenderness upon him to no purpose. 
Lingering through four days, he apologized to those 
who stood about his couch, and said with a wan smile, 
" I have been an unconscionable time dying ; but I 
hope you will excuse it."f A priest was brought, 
the room was cleared, the royal penitent was ab- 
solved by Eoman hands, and on the 6th of February, 
a piece of crape laid over a cold form announced 
that Charles Stuart had danced through the revel 
of his life. 

* Mackintosh, Neale, Macanley. t Pepys' Diary, Macauiey. 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 471 



CHAPTEE XXXY. 

THEOUGH THE WILDERNESS TO CANAAN. 

In a former century, England, by the death, of 
Edward VI. and the accession of Mary Tudor of 
bloody memory, had been lassoed to the feet of 
Rome. History seemed about to repeat itself. 
Charles II. was now succeeded by his brother 
James II.—" Belial by Moloch." 

The two most prominent traits of the new king's 
character were bigotry and absolutism ;* he was 
under the complete dominion of those congenial 
twins. Bishop Burnet, who was intimately ac- 
quainted with James, says that "he was very brave 
in his youth, and so much magnified by Monsieur 
Turenne, that, until his marriage lessened him, he 
really clouded Charles, and passed for the superior 
genius. He had a great desire to understand 
affairs ; and in order to that, he kept a constant 
journal of all that passed. The duke of Bucking- 
ham once gave a short but severe character of the 
two brothers ; it was the more severe because true. 
' The king,' said he, 4 could understand things if he 
would, and the duke would understand things if he 
could.' James had no true judgment, and was soon 
determined by those he trusted ; but he was obsti- 
nate against all other advices. He was bred with 

* Clarendon's Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 122 ; Hume, vol. 2, 
p. 564. 



472 HISTOEY OF THE PURITANS. 



liigli notions of the royal authority, and laid it down 
as a maxim, that all who opposed the king were 
rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one 
amour or another, and was not very nice in his 
choice ; so that Charles used to say, ' I believe that 
my brother has his mistresses given him by his 
priests for penance.' "* 

The new monarch's initial move was to utter a 
solemn lie ; but it served its purpose and cozened 
England. Assembling the privy -council while 
Charles lay dead in an adjoining room, he affirmed 
that he had no purpose but to maintain the exist- 
ing laws, civil- and ecclesiastical — that he planted 
himself upon the statu quo.f 

This declaration surprised and delighted the 
island, and copies of it were scattered far and wide. 
Yet James was so awkward a dissembler, that on 
the first Sunday after his accession he went openly 
to mass, still an illegal act ;X he publicly announced 
that his royal brother had been shriven, and had 
died an avowed Romanist ;§ he even sent Caryl on 
an embassy to Rome to negotiate with the pontiff 
for the reaclmission of England into the bosom of 
the holy see.|| Indeed so hot and reckless was his 
conduct, that pope Innocent XI. cautioned him 
against his precipitate zeal, and urged him to 

* Burnet's Own Times, p. 114. 

f Dalrymple, Mem. of Great Britain, vol. 1, pp. 1G2, 163 ; Life 
of Lord North ; Hume, vol. 2, p. 564 ; Clark's Life of James II. 
J Hume, vol. 2, p. 564 ; Dalrymple. 
§ Evelyn's Diary, Barillion's Memoirs. 
|| Mackintosh, Hist, of ^Revolution of 1688 ; Hume. 



THKOUGH THE WILDERNESS. 473 



"make haste slowly."* Konquillo, the Spanish 
ambassador at the English court, also ventured to 
remonstrate with the king, and to advise him not 
to assent too readily and openly to the dangerous 
counsel of the priests who thronged his court. "Is 
it not the custom in Spain," queried James, "for 
the king to consult with his confessor?" "Aye," 
was' the reply, "and 'tis for that very reason our 
affairs succeed so ill."f 

When Parliament met, in May, 1685, James de- 
manded the settlement of a revenue upon him for 
life, and insinuated that he would not depend upon 
the precarious grants of the grudging Commons. 
He also had the impudence to reiterate his promise 
to preserve the existing government in church and 
state ; whereon the cajoled Parliament voted him a 
life annuity of two million pounds, and then pre- 
sented an address requesting him to issue a procla- 
mation for the strict enforcement of the penal code 
against dissenters from the English ritual. [J 

In so far as the laws which the Parliament had 
invoked bore upon Protestant non-conformists, 
James hastened to give their execution his cordial 
assent ; but the magistracy, never before so servile 
as now, were aware of the king's predilections, and 
while the Puritans were given no quarter, they re- 
fused to issue any process against Romanists.§ 

An event now occurred which armed the king 

* Mackintosh, Hist, .of Revolution of 1G88 ; Hume, 
f Hume, vol. 2, p. 564. 

J Dalrymple ; Fox, Hist, of the Reign of James II. 
§ Neale, Mackintosh, Dalrymple, Evelyn's Diary. 



474 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



with a new pretext for severity. The more promi- 
nent movers of that parliamentary bill of exclusion, 
which had been framed to exclude James from the 
throne, and which had provoked such ill-feeling 
between Charles and the Commons in the recent 
reign, fearing that James would sacrifice them to 
his resentment, had quitted England on his acces- 
sion, and sought an asylum on the Continent.* 
Here they began to plot. The duke of Monmouth, 
a natural son of Charles II., was given the leader- 
ship in a conspiracy to dethrone James by rallying 
the Scottish Presbyterians and the English dissent- 
ers to the support of the insurrection. The Quix- 
otic attempt was made. Argyle landed on the north 
side of the Tweed ; Monmouth landed on the west 
coast of the island. Bands of ill-armed, undisci- 
plined, and foredoomed guerillas were collected, 
and a crazy effort was made to unseat a sovereign 
who had not yet forfeited the loyal good-will of the 
people. Parliament, then in session, voted to ad- 
here to J ames ; passed a bill of attainder against 
Monmouth ; equipped an army ; and on the 5th of 
July, 1685, met and routed the insurgents, and cap- 
tured its chiefs. Argyle was executed at Edin- 
burgh ; Monmouth was beheaded at London ; and 
James, elated and vindictive, determined to wreak 
his cruel vengeance on the disaffected, and to lay 
the heavy arm of a conqueror upon the Puritans at 
large, t 

* Life of Lord North ; Macauley, Hist, of England. 

t Palmer, Non-conformist Memorial ; Neale ; Evelyn's Diary. 



THEOUGH THE WILDERNESS. 475 



Jeffries was at this time Chief-justice of the 
King's Bench, a position won by those atrocious 
traits which have made him immortally infamous. 
Charles had never liked him. His insolence and 
cruelty provoked the merry monarch's scorn and 
disgust. " The man has no learning, no sense, no 
manners, and more impudence than ten carted 
street-walkers," cried he one day. But a fellow- 
feeling drew James towards him. His lack of rev- 
erence for law, his insensibility to shame made him 
a useful tool; so the court bought his "forehead of 
brass and his tongue of venom ;" and a beast so 
habitually drunk that he was said to have climbed 
up every lamp-post and lain in every gutter in Lon- 
don, was installed in the chief-justiceship of Eng- 
land as the successor of that consummate and un- 
spotted laAvyer Sir Matthew Hale. 

This wretch was dispatched into the insurrec- 
tionary district, and every step he took was on a 
corpse. His atrocious circuit is to this day the 
scoff and the execration of the English bar.* 

James was emboldened by this success to re- 
sume his schemes for the naturalization of Roman- 
ism. Like all despots, he preferred the abnormal 
forces to the legal forces of society. He wished to 
back his absolutism by bayonets. The recent emeute 
was an excellent pretext ; and on the plea that the 
security of tranquil government necessitated it, he 
announced his determination to maintain a stand- 

* A long account of this circuit is given in Dalrymple and in 
Macauley. 



470 HISTOKY OF THE PUKITANS. 



ing army.* Then, when this point was gained, he 
threw off the mask. His council was packed with 
papists ; the most obnoxious prerogatives of the 
crown were usurped anew; the dispensing and sus- 
pending powers began to be in daily use ; the court 
of High Commission was dug up, and it was filled 
with Romanists ; all the offices of state were usurped 
by papists; elections were subjected to his arbi- 
trary will ; charters of corporations were annulled ; 
judges were displaced if they ventured to refuse to 
play the parrot and repeat the sentence of the 
court; petitions even the most modest, and from 
persons of the highest rank, were treated as sedi- 
tious and criminal; buildings of all kinds, churches, 
chapels, colleges, seminaries, were erected for the 
Eomanists at the national expense ; Scotland was 
harried into popery; Ireland was surrendered wholly 
to the domination of that creed ; the English uni- 
versities were revolutionized; Magdalen college be- 
came a pocket edition of the Sorbonne ; a gigantic 
effort was made to leash England to the pope's tri- 
umphal car.t 

Astounded at this " Punic faith," Protestantism 
could at first find no voice even to protest. The 
dissenters were effectually gagged and thinned by 
the legal campaigns of Jeffries, and their destruc- 
tion was a part of the plan for the strengthening of 

% Rapin, Hume, D Araux ; Life of Lord North ; Memoir of 
James II. 

■j- Ibid. ; Dalrymple, Neale ; Declaration of the Prince of Or- 
ange ; Fox, Hist, of the Reign of James II., etc. 



THBOUGH THE WILDEBNESS. 477 



the Eomisli liorde. * But the church of England 
was as yet unbound ; it could protest. Startled 
into prodigious activity by this assault upon what 
was most loved and revered in England, the bish- 
ops did exert themselves. They began to preach 
against the Eoman tenets. The king forbade even 
this mild opposition. The bishops persisted. James 
summoned Dr. Sharpe and the bishop of London 
before his High Commission, and had both sus- 
pended.! 

And now, feeling the importance of allying him- 
self with the dissenters in the war against the church 
which he was inaugurating, James suspended the 
penal laws, declared it to be his purpose to tolerate 
all sects, affirmed that he had only consented to the 
recent persecution of the Non-conformists because 
obliged to do so by the Episcopal bench ; indeed 
he used every wile in order to ingratiate himself 
with the Puritans and gain their aid against the 
E stablish ment. X 

Of course the Non-conformists did not scruple 
to avail themselves of the liberty now granted, but 
they understood the motives of the king, and they 
were not cozened by the toleration into silence or 
content.§ Patriots as well as Christians, they could 
not but look with reprobation upon a despotism 
bolder than that of Elizabeth, meaner than that of 
Charles. 



* Memoirs of James II. , Dalrymple, Evelyn's Diary, Borillou, 
Neale. f Hume, Dalrymple, Macauley, Mackintosh, Fox. 

t Ibid. § Neale, vol. 2, p. 607. 



4:78 HISTOEY OF THE PUEITANS. 



When the Puritans reviewed the record of a 
quarter of a century, and counted two millions of 
pounds wrung from them since the Restoration by 
illegal fines; when they remembered their mutilated 
persons, their wrecked prosperity, their scattered 
families, and their outraged neighbors ; when they 
collected lists of their brother sufferers, and reck- 
oned eight thousand who had died in prison, and 
sixty thousand who had suffered since the recall of 
the Stuarts, as martyrs for conscience,* they were 
in no mood to listen with patience to the homilies 
of a Jesuit king whose utterances, as all knew, went 
no deeper than his lips. 

But while he coquetted with the Puritans, James 
carried on a vigorous war against the churchmen. 
Six prelates were arrested in 1688, and flung into 
the Tower for refusing to acknowledge the legality 
of the dispensing power. t " When the people," 
says Hume, "beheld these fathers of the church 
brought from court under the custody of a guard ; 
when they saw them embarked in vessels on the 
Thames and conveyed towards the Tower, all their 
affection for liberty, all their zeal for religion blazed 
up at once. The whole shore was covered with 
crowds of prostrate spectators, who at once im- 
plored the blessing of these holy pastors, and ad- 
dressed their petitions to heaven for protection 
during the extreme danger to which their country 

* Delanne's Plea for tlie Non-confomiists ; cited in Neale, vol. 
2, pp. 607 r G08. 

t Mackintosh, Fox, Neale, Evelyn's Diary, Burnet. 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 479 



and their faith now stood exposed. Even the sol- 
diers, seized with the contagion, flung themselves 
upon their knees, and craved the benediction of 
those criminals whom they were appointed to 
guard."* 

"When the trial of these prelates occurred, the 
same imposing ceremony of grief and veneration 
was exhibited by the sympathetic populace ; and 
when it was announced that they were acquitted, 
the wildest enthusiasm was displayed. t 

This haughty insult, offered by James to the 
English church, divorced its affection from him, 
and rendered all future reconciliation impossible. 
Yet he did not pause. Claiming to be above the 
law, grasping prerogatives which had brought his 
father to the block, he strutted with heedless, blun- 
dering haste towards the achievement of his plot — 
the conquest of the island, and the submission of 
its torn and strangled liberties to Eome. For this, 
magna cliarta was torn in pieces and scattered to 
the winds. For this, Protestant officers were cash- 
iered in the army.;): For this, Hull and Portsmouth, 
the two principal sea-ports of England, were seized 
and held by Komanist conspirators.§ For this, 
Irish papists were welcomed to Whitehall in shoals, 
and sent to garrison important towns. [| For this 

«*- Hume, vol. 2, p. 582. 

f Burnet's Own Times, Borillon, D'Araux, State Trials. 
X Fox, Hist, of Beign of James ; Dalrymple, Hist, des Bevolu- 
tions d'Angleterre, liv. 11. 

§ Life of Lord North ; Bramston's Memoirs ; Mackintosh, etc. 
|| Neale, vol. 2, p. G17 ; Burnet's Own Times. 



480 HISTOBY OF THE PUEITANS. 



the court of England stooped to beg the king of 
France to advance his accursed gold. For this, 
Whitehall became a stipendiary of Versailles, and 
Louis XIY. poured into England more than three 
million Louis d'or.* Eor this, that puissant nation, 
which had been the arbiter of Europe, sank to be 
the spaniel of petty continental princes, and com- 
peted in political importance with the duchy of 
Savoy. 

But even in those directions in which James 
flattered himself that he had made most progress, 
incidents which constantly cropped out showed that 
he had made the least. He was accustomed to 
" encamp the army on Hounslow-heath, that he 
might both improve their discipline, and by so 
stern a spectacle overawe his mutinous metropolis. 
A popish chapel was openly erected in the midst 
of the camp, and every effort was made to bring 
over the soldiers to that communion. It was time 
wasted; the few converts the priests made were 
treated by their brothers in arms with such con- 
tempt and ignominy as deterred others from simi- 
lar renegadism. Even the Irish officers whom the 
king introduced into the army, served rather, from 
the aversion borne them, to weaken the royal influ- 
ence. It happened, on the very day that the trial 
of the bishops was triumphantly concluded, James 
had reviewed the troops, and had just retired into 
the tent of Lord Eeversham their commander, when 
he was surprised to hear a great uproar in the camp, 
* Borillon ; Macauley, Hist, of England ; Dalrymple. 



THEOUGH THE WILDE KNESS. 481 



attended by the most extravagant symptoms of tu- 
multuous joy. He inquired the cause, and was told 
by Fevershani, ' 'T is nothing but the rejoicings of 
the soldiers oyer the acquittal of the bishops.' 
'Do you call that nothing?' replied the irritated 
monarch; then he added darkly, 'But so much the 
worse for them.' "* 

Every day the battle between the king and the 
people increased in fierceness and in venom. Ro- 
manism strutted in the royal purple, and clutching 
the stolen liberties of England, leered and mocked 
from the very throne. There was but one bright 
spot in the leaden horizon : James was as yet child- 
less ; his daughter Mary was heir presumptive ; she 
was a Protestant; and in 1677 Charles II. had given 
her in marriage to the prince of Orange at the con- 
clusion of a bitter war with Holland, as a sign of 
amity and the seal of peace. t The hope of a juster 
rule under her auspices, gave England patience to 
endure this night of tyranny and to await the dawn 
of a jocund morrow. 

One day this ray of hope was quenched. It was 
announced that a son had been born to James. ;£ 
This event, which the king and his cabal had al- 
ways regarded as certain to garland their cause 
and insure success, proved fatal. The royal babe 
was pronounced to be supposititious. It was af- 

* Hume, vol. 2, p. 583. 

f Evelyn's Diary ; Dalrymple ; Fox, Reign of James II. ; Hist 
des Revolutions d'Angleterre. 

t Dalryniple ; Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon ; Burnot. 

Puritan*. 21 



482 HISTOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



firmed that a monarch, who had scrupled at no 
crime in his career of bigotry, would hardly balk 
at the sacrifice of his heretic daughter when she 
threatened to thwart his passionate determination 
to anchor the island in the Latin faith.* 

A coalition was formed. Secret negotiations 
were opened with William of Orange. The church- 
men and the aristocracy, both robbed and trodden 
under foot by the royal madman at the helm of 
state, were the first movers in this dangerous diplo- 
matic game, and they used every imaginable argu- 
ment to win recruits. t It was esteemed moment- 
ously important to secure the active support of the 
non-conformists. Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, held 
frequent consultations with their clergy. The secret 
of the Dutch negotiations was cautiously communi- 
cated, and Lloyd said, " I hope the Protestant dis- 
senters will concur in promoting the common inter- 
est; you and we are brethren: we have indeed been 
angry brethren, but we have seen our folly, and are 
resolved that we will keep up our domestic quarrels 
no longer."J These words were not the empty wind 
of a desperate schemer anxious to inveigle dupes 
into his plot ; they echoed not the unanimous, but 
the most authoritative voice of the English church. § 

The Puritans, anxious for the future, thrilled by 
the glowing legends of the past, earnest, patriotic, 
joined the coalition ; trusting more, however, to the 



e Hume, vol. 2, p. 584 ; Burnet ; Evelyn's Diary. 

t Ibid. t Neale, vol. 2, pp. G21, 622. 

§ Ibid., Mackintosh, Fox. 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS 



483 



tolerant principles of "William of Orange, a prince 
who had been educated in their creed, than to the 
caresses of their inveterate foes.* 

The Whigs opposed James precisely as Hamp- 
den and Pjm had fought his father ; in their eyes 
the rights of the commonwealth were not to be bal- 
anced by the usurped prerogatives of a thrice-per- 
jured king. 

The Tories, frightened into inconsistency, no 
longer embalmed the slavish dogma of passive obe- 
dience in matchless panegyrics, but, spurred by the 
instinct of self-preservation, they too deserted the 
court, and took on their lips the watchwords of the 
revolution. 

Faction was put in the cradle and rocked to 
sleep ; England at large united to invite the inter- 
vention of the Dutch stadtholder.f 

"William of Orange was the most remarkable 
man of that epoch. A scion of the princely house 
of Nassau, which had stood conspicuous among the 
noblest of the ruling families of Germany from the 
dawn of modern history, he was early initiated into 
the mysteries of the cabinet and the subtle tactics 
of war. Domestic broils . sharpened his wits, and 
he studied politics under the consummate admin- 
istration of De Witt. His first laurels were won 
in defending his country against the French stand- 
ards of Turenne and the great Conde ; and now, at 
thirty-nine, he governed the United Netherlands 

« Hume, vol. 2, p. 588. 

t Mackintosh, Fox, Dalryrnple, D'Araux, Burnet. 



484: HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. 



with an eclat which rivalled the brilliant clays of the 
republic's birth.* 

Thoughtful, of ungovernable spirit, persuasive 
though taciturn, of simple character, yet maintain- 
ing clue dignity and becoming magnificence in his 
official station, an able captain, a wise statesman, a 
tolerant Christian, William of Orange was the pre- 
server of his own country, the head of the Protes- 
tant interest in Christendom, and the asserter of 
the liberties of Europe. t 

With habitual caution, he took time to consider 
the invitation of the English coalition, but finally 
he decided to intervene. An army was equipped, 
ferried across the Channel, landed in England; and 
with William and Mary at its head, it trod in tri- 
urnph from Torbay to the metropolis. % 

In the mean time, James, as inefficient in a crisis 
as he was haughty in a calm, played the meanest 
comedy in which a crowned head ever figured. 
Without an effort, without a struggle worthy of the 
name, he skulked out of England into France, and 
sued for an asylum at the foot of Louis XIYtlrs 
throne. § 

The royal dastard was solemnly declared to 
have deserted the throne ; William was voted the 
crown jointly with queen Mary 3 and the glorious 

* D'Estraeb's Memoires de la Hollande ; VandeiTynkt ; D'A- 
raux ; Temple, in United Netherlands, ehs. 4, o, passim, 
f Mackintosh, p. 395 ; Dalrymple, yoI. 2, book 5, p. 2. 
t D'Araux ; Evelyn's Diary. 

^ Ibid., Mackintosh, Fox, Borillon, Pardoe's Court of Louis 
XIV. 



THROUGH THE "WILDE EXE SS. 485 



revolution of 1688 was accomplished — victoria sine 
clade. 

On the 21st of December, 1688, three clays after 
the arrival of the prince of Orange at St. James', 
the bishop of London, accompanied by a mixed 
delegation of churchmen and dissenters, waited 
upon the liberator and congratulated him on his 
success.* Two weeks later a distinct body of nigh 
one hundred non-conformist clergymen were intro- 
duced to William, and to their cordial address he 
made this reply: "Gentlemen, my great end in this 
expedition has been the preservation of the Protes- 
tant religion, and with the Almighty's assistance 
and permission, so to defend and support it as 
might give it strength and reputation throughout 
the world, sufficient to preserve it from the insult 
and oppression of its most implacable enemies, and 
that more immediately in these kingdoms of Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland. I will use my utmost 
endeavors so to settle and cement all different per- 
suasions of Protestants in such a bond of love and 
community as may contribute to the lasting secu- 
rity and enjoyment of temporals and spirituals to 
all sincere professors of that holy religion. "f 

The echo of this speech was the bill of tolera- 
tion, passed early in 1689, and which excused dis- 
senters from attending the Established church, and 
removed the ban from separate conventicles. t 

s Burnet's Own Times ; Xeale. 

\ D'Araux ; Burnet's Own Times : Neale's Puritans. 

% Burnet's Own Times, pp. 529-532 ; Grey's Pari. Debates. 



486 HIS TOE Y OF THE PURITANS. 



Here, beneath the benediction of this toleration, 
ends the distinctive history of the English Puritans. 
Even under the Restoration, Puritan had begun to 
be merged in Dissenter and Non-conformist. Now 
the good old name was dropped in Britain ; but not 
so the spirit. That still lives, and animating twice 
five thousand pulpits, it is fadeless, immortal. 

The revolution of 1688 marked that age and 
moulded the future : William of Orange was its 
chief ; to that illustrious statesman, under God, 
Puritanism owes temporal and spiritual liberty, 
and we may agree with Cromwell, that " he sings 
sweetly who sings a song of reconciliation between 
those interests." 

If now, under the shelter of this toleration, we 
pause to weigh the spoils and count the trophies of 
this tremendous struggle, smeared with the blood 
of martyrs, dignified by the sufferings of saints, we 
shall find that the triumph of Puritanism was the 
result of its rigid attachment to the moral forces. 
The hair of this Samson was theology ; shorn of 
that, the Philistines might easily have bound it. 
But no Delilah could coax it to repose its head on 
the treacherous lap. It knew the secret of its 
strength, and guarded it with austere care. 

It has been well said, that the history of English 
Puritanism is the story of a theological movement, 
and of a great national struggle. These are two 
parts of one grand whole ; they are as closely wed- 
ded to each other as Austin was to his Kebridius, 
of whom he said, " They had one soul in two bodies." 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 487 



Old Firmin, in his quaint dedicatory epistle to John 
Barrington of Redgewood, in the " Real Christian," 
which Cotton Mather pronounced " a golden book," 
said, referring to his friend's spirit, ever active to 
promote the good of others, " Methinks the town is 
not at home while Mr. Barrington is out of town." 
Puritanism is not at home if its religious aspect be 
divorced from its political manifestations. It not 
only entered into and strongly colored the national 
life of its epoch, but, overflowing contemporaneous 
channels, it has spread into all lands and ages. It 
has not only given strength and passion to the re- 
ligion, but to the literature and the aspirations of 
Christendom. For Puritanism is not a dead an- 
tique. It did not die under the edict of toleration ; 
its life was not cut short by a date : passing over 
into modern dissent, it has toned and emphasized 
the ethics of later times as potentially as it did the 
thought and expression of the era of Hampden and 
of Baxter. Two results of Puritanism, the Com- 
monwealth and the Revolution of 1688, consolidated 
English freedom; these produced, at a fitting inter- 
val, the independence of the Puritan colonies of our 
fathers in 1776. The American Revolution, in its 
turn, did much to precipitate the first great Revo- 
lution of France ; and if, as Carlyle has said, " The 
eighteenth century blew out its brains in the French 
Revolution," the suicide was owing to a lack of Pu- 
ritan principle in the leaders, juggled by the " god- 
dess of reason," and of Puritan training in the sans 
culottes who went raving through the streets of the 



488 HI-STOEY OF THE PUKITANS. 



capital, and smeared the Parisian pavements with 
gore. 

Yet abortive as that revolution seemed, it has 
accomplished much; and all the subsequent emeutes 
and attempted settlements in Continental Europe 
are returns of the same "irrepressible conflict," 
which cannot apparently find a close and a peace- 
ful issue till the Bible of the Puritans be every- 
where consulted, and the God and Redeemer of the 
Puritans be everywhere recognized. 

Nor is the Puritan spirit " cabined, cribbed, con- 
fined " within the limits of any specific sect ; it un- 
derlies and vivifies the whole evangelical movement 
of modern times. It is the spiritual ground which 
the gospel athletes of all denominations must touch 
to regain their strength exhausted in the struggle 
with materialism. Most of the famous divines of 
the eighteenth century were connected with the Pu- 
ritans, either through blood relationship, or through 
the higher kinship of the soul.* Watts, the "singer 

° "It is a fact not generally known, that the most remarkable 
men of the eighteenth century, both Conformists and Non-con- 
formists, were the lineal descendants of the ejected clergy, or of 
their Xon-conformist adherents. This is illustrated in the histo- 
ries of Archbishop Seeker, Bishop Butler, Dr. Newcome, "William 
Burkitt, John and Charles Wesley, Matthew Henry, Jeremiah 
Jones, Dr. Doddridge, John Priestley, Dr. Nathaniel Lardner, 
aud Dr. Watts. Of these, Seeker, Butler, Jones, and Chandler, 
were all trained as dissenting ministers by Mr. Samuel Janes of 
Gloucester ; and it was at the age of twenty-one, and while under 
Mr. Janes' roof, that Butler gave the first indication of that power 
which appears so conspicuous in the ' Analogy of Beligion. ' Seek- 
er, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, first essayed his powers 
as a preacher as a candidate for the Non-conformist ministry at 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 489 



of Israel," imbibed tlieir spirit with his mother's 
milk as she suckled him on the stone steps of the 
jail where his father, a Non-conformist, was incar- 
cerated. Wesley's mother, to whom he owed so 
much, was a daughter of Dr. Annesley, a clergy- 
man who was ejected from St. Giles', Cripplegate, 
London, in 1662 ; and his Methodism, which was 
greeted by the ribald sneers of giddy Oxford, was, 
in an important sense, the flowering out of those 
austere Puritan tenets with which he became famil- 
iar when a boy. Whitefield, though not of Puritan 
descent, still valued the distinctive principles of 
Owen, of Howe, and of Calamy, and it is said that 
he read Matthew Henry's " Commentaries on the 
Scriptures" through upon his knees. 

The influence of Puritanism has been and still 
is most marked in the evangelical movement within 
the English Establishment. The "low-church" 
stands almost upon the plane of Baxter ; and Wil- 
berforce, in his " Plea for Keligion," commends the 
perusal of the Puritan writers with emphatic ear- 
nestness. So in the awakening within the Scotch 
established Presbyterian church : Chalmers, whose 
phrase conjured the wondering stars to disclose 

Boston. Newcome, archbishop of Armagh, whose various theo- 
logical works reflect so much credit on his learning and industry, 
was a descendant of the Kev. Henry Newcome, M. A., ejected 
from Manchester. William Burkitt, whose 'Expository Notes 
upon the New Testament ' have passed through almost as many 
editions as the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' was the son of Miles Burkitt, 
M. A., ejected from Neatishead, in Norfolk, for Non-conformity." 
Brewer's Men of the Exodus of 1662, pp. 64, 65. London, 1862. 

21* 



490 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



their virgin mysteries, placed the highest value 
upon the Puritan doctrinaires, exhibited the great- 
c st relish for their works, and was tinctured by their 
lone and method. 

Puritanism, crossing the water with the Pil- 
grims, created Edwards and inspired Brainerd. It 
was the soul of the revivals of the colonial epoch. 
It nerved the hearts and strengthened the hands of 
the men who jeoparded their " lives, their fortunes, 
and their sacred honor" in the days of 1776; and 
in our second Revolution of 1861, the grand provi- 
dential result of which has been to stereotype into 
active law that liberty, equality, and fraternity of 
which our fathers dreamed, the war-cry was the same 
that rang over Naseby and Marston-moor. Foote 
and Mitchell were regular Cromwellians dug up 
from beneath the scaffold of Charles I. And if we 
recross the water, we shall find Montalembert, him- 
self a Frenchman and a Romanist, referring to 
Havelock as a "resurrected Puritan." 

Puritanism is to a great extent the soul of modern 
missions ; and with the Bible in it and behind it, it 
strikes, through the pulpit and the press, the key- 
note of the progressive civilization and the Chris- 
tian enlightenment of the nineteenth century. It 
has its million voices ; and loud above the babble 
of materialistic philosophy, it shouts the glorious 
watchwords of what Milton loved to call "the good 
old cause." 

Let us reverently thank Gocl that Puritanism is 
a living and a growing power of our epoch ; for it 



THEOUGH THE WILDE KNESS. 491 



is an unimpeachable historic fact, that those com- 
munities which have been moulded by principles 
essentially Puritanical, have always written excelsior 
upon their foreheads in the race of material prog- 
ress, and clasped the highest moral standards to 
their hearts. This the most opposite scholars have 
conceded. Mozley, in his "Augustinian Doctrine 
of Predestination," and Merivale, in his " Constitu- 
tion of the Northern Nations," admit it at length ; 
yet neither of these thinkers is a Puritan. High 
views of God, and stern judgments as to man's 
dependence and demerit, have ever, in Britain, in 
Scotland, in Holland, in Protestant Germany, in 
Huguenot France, in our United States, and in the 
older Geneva, produced a decency, a gravity, a 
firmness, and a delicacy of moral character which 
cannot be excelled, and which perhaps may not be 
paralleled elsewhere. 

The cause of the Puritans was the cause of spir- 
itual Christianity. Their whole career was colored 
by their radiant faith. They "trusted God, and 
kept their powder dry." It is this trait which has 
given them so wide and so beneficent an influence 
on either continent. It is this which has detached 
men from childish devotion to mere forms, and has 
won them to grasp at the essence of their princi- 
ples. It is this which has persuaded the highest 
thinkers to protest against the grovelling tenets of 
materialism, and which has taught society to ap- 
peal from the present to the eternal. Religion, 
stripped of its presumption, cleansed from its impu- 



492 HISTOEY OF THE PUBITANS. 



rities, announces its dependence upon God, lifts its 
sweet face to the stars, and the Father kisses it 
upon its forehead. 

As regards the Puritans, " the odious and ridic- 
ulous parts of their character," as Macauley has 
told us, "lie on the surface. He who runs may 
read them ; nor have there been wanting attentive 
and malicious observers to point them out. For 
many years after the Restoration, they were the 
theme of unmeasured invective and derision. They 
were exposed to the utmost licentiousness of the 
press and of the stage, at the time when the press 
and the stage were most licentious. They were not 
men of letters ; they were, as a body, unpopular ; 
they were therefore abandoned without reserve to 
the tender mercies of the satirists and dramatists. 
The ostentatious simplicity of their dress, their 
sober aspect, their nasal twang, their detestation 
of polite amusements, became the game of the 
laughers. But it is not from the laughers alone 
that the philosophy of history is to be learned. 

" The Puritans were men whose minds had de- 
rived a peculiar character from the daily contem- 
plation of superior beings and eternal interests. 
Not content with acknowledging in general terms 
an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed 
every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose 
power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection 
nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve 
him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of 
existence. They rejected with contempt the cere- 



THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 493 



inonious homage which others substituted for the 
pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching oc- 
casional glimpses of the Deity through an obscur- 
ing veil, they aspired to gaze full on his intolerable 
brightness, and to commune with him face to face. 
Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial dis- 
tinctions. The difference between the greatest and 
the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when 
compared with the boundless interval which sep- 
arated the whole race from Him on whom their 
eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no 
title to superiority but His favor : and confident of 
that favor, they despised all the accomplishments 
and all the dignities of the world. The Puritan 
was made up of two different men : the one all self- 
abasement, penitence, gratitude, and sacred pas- 
sion ; the other proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. 
He prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker, 
but he set his heel on the neck of his king. The 
intensity of his feelings on one subject made him 
tranquil on any other. One overpowering senti- 
ment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, am- 
bition and fear. Death had lost its terrors, and 
pleasure its charms. The Puritan had his smiles, 
his tears, his raptures, his sorrows, but they were 
not for the things of this world. Piety had cleared 
his mind from every vulgar passion and prejudice, 
and raised him above the influence of danger and 
of corruption." 

But if the Puritans were oblivious of the otium 
cum dignitate of life, they were never unmindful of 



494 HISTOEY OF THE PUBXTANS. 



its stern duties or of its necessities. Above all, they 
were actors ; they were not speculators in divinity; 
they were not hucksters in politics; they did not 
take upon their lips unmeaning oaths, as little to be 
trusted as the "By these hilts" of an Alsatian dicer; 
they did not mimic the outward sanctity of the Ital- 
ian faith, and become as constant at prayers as a 
priest, as heedless of God as an atheist ; they did 
not attempt, like Jewish pedlars, to trade in the 
relics of by-gone saints, or to masquerade in the 
garb of their fathers' piety. But if their principles 
lay scattered broadcast in the centuries behind 
them, their application was all their own ; and we 
read their history " in the broad, legible steps of 
lives whose polar star was duty, whose goal was 
liberty, and whose staff was justice." Before their 
time, men had been creeping along the Mediterra- 
nean of thought, from headland to headland, in 
their timidity ; the Puritans launched boldly out 
into the Atlantic, and trusted Gocl. 

The results of this militant faith soon appeared 
in a renovated church and a liberalized state. The 
English Constitution is largely indebted to Puri- 
tanism for many of its grandest checks on despot- 
ism. That element first sketched out the bound- 
ary line between liberty and the prerogative in the 
"debatable land" of the British polity. Liberty 
regulated by law is the secret of Anglo-Saxon 
progress, and we owe it to Puritanism. 

Common-schools were born of that democracy 
of which the Puritans were enamoured ; and these, 



THKOUGH THE WILDEKNESS. 415 



with piety, are the divine sheet-anchor of all com- 
monwealths. The Puritans saved the seventeenth 
century from a relapse into popery; and it was 
owing to their steady, unshrinking faith that when 
Loyola organized Jesuitism and made his reactive 
assault upon the Protestant idea, Western Europe 
came out of the ordeal triumphant. 

Of course the Puritans had faults ; they were 
men, and they shared the imperfections of human- 
ity. There are no angels in the records of our race. 
"Wherever we may search, we shall find at best but 
sinful men ; still "we find men to whose might, piety, 
daring, and disinterested suffering for those about 
them, the succeeding generations owe the larger 
share of their blessings." 

Nor is it just to measure the Puritans of the 
middle of the seventeenth century by the standards 
of the middle of the nineteenth. Measured by the 
tests of their own epoch, they need not balk the 
trial ; indeed they tower above their contemporaries 
as mount Blanc towers above its brother Alps. 

Still, after all, the Puritans are to be regarded 
in posse, not in esse — in the possibilities which lay 
wrapped up in their epoch. The children are the 
glory of the fathers. The best tribute to the Puri- 
tans is a civilization bound, if possible, to be better 
than the past — bound to be what Yane and Baxter 
and Latimer would be, were they alive to-day and 
surrounded by our opportunities. 

'Tis said that, when some one sent a cracked 
plate to China as a pattern for a new tea-set, the 



496 



HISTOEY OP THE PUBITANS. 



stupid Chinese imitated the original so exactly that 
each plate in the new set had a crack in it. Such 
imitation is not discipleship. But in that unshrink- 
ing love of liberty which characterized the devotees 
of the "good old cause;" in that stern, uncompro- 
mising faith which was the cloud by day and the 
pillar of fire by night, which led our fathers in the 
tangled way through the wilderness unto the Celes- 
tial City ; in that faithful proclamation of the gos- 
pel, that love of God, that affection for the only 
begotten Son, the Saviour of mankind, which in- 
spired our illustrious sires — in these, the beatitudes 
of life, we are solemnly called to imitate the Puri- 
tans, who were the impersonation of God's order 
and God's law, moulding a better future, and set- 
ting for it an example. 



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